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A military plane carrying five U.S. immigrants took off from Djibouti in July 2025.

Its destination was Eswatini, a small country nestled on the border between South Africa and Mozambique. Ruled by a king, Eswatini had made a deal with the Trump administration to receive up to 160 people removed from the United States in exchange for $5.1 million.

According to a complaint filed with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, the men didn’t know where they were going until the plane had almost landed.

As with the Venezuelan men sent to El Salvador last year by the Trump administration, when the Eswatini-bound flight arrived, the government there placed the new arrivals in a maximum-security prison, where most remain today with no way to challenge their detention. Unlike the case for the Venezuelan men in El Salvador, Congress and the media have spent little time looking into the ongoing imprisonment of the men in Eswatini.

But for the family members of the people sent there, the separation has been devastating.

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“He’s suffering some major depression there as I suffer silently here,” said the life partner of a Cuban man sent to Eswatini who asked not to be fully identified for fear of retaliation.

She said she’s working two jobs to take care of their family now that he’s gone.

When asked about the situation, the Department of Homeland Security, through an unnamed spokesperson, deferred to the State Department regarding the agreement with Eswatini.

“The Trump Administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised,” the spokesperson said. “Anyone who has been deported received full due process.”

The Eswatini government and the U.S. State Department did not respond to requests for comment. When the first flight landed in Eswatini, the Trump administration disparaged the men because of their criminal records.

Since July, two more flights have landed in Eswatini, most recently in March, bringing the total number of immigrants removed from the United........

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