Laotian man deported by US to Eswatini freed after over a year, being sent to Laos

Centre · 2Phone Chomsavanh, a Laotian citizen deported by the United States to Eswatini, was released on Sunday 4 October 2026 from a maximum-security prison there after being held for more than a year, his lawyer said. 1 2 Centre · 2Chomsavanh was one of five immigrants deported to Eswatini, where he has no ties, in July 2025, in the early days of the Trump administration's third-country deportation program. 1 2 Centre · 2His US-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said Chomsavanh was told of the destination only shortly before a military cargo plane carrying him and other deportees landed in Eswatini more than 14 months ago, and is now being deported to Laos. 1 2

Centre · 2Nguyen told the Associated Press that Chomsavanh had left Eswatini and landed in Johannesburg on the way to Laos. An Eswatini government spokesperson did not immediately acknowledge the release. 1 2 Centre · 2All five men were convicted of serious crimes in the US but had completed their sentences before being sent to the Matsapha Correctional Complex near the capital, Mbabane. Nguyen said Chomsavanh was held without ever being charged with a crime in Eswatini, with no notice, hearing or chance to object, and that this was not due process. 1 2 Centre · 1Chomsavanh was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his parents fled Laos, and his family moved to the US when he was 7, according to the lawyer. 1

Centre · 2Rights groups monitoring the deportations, including Human Rights First, count around 500 immigrants sent from the US to African countries that are not their home nations since the program began. Around a dozen African countries have accepted deportees, some in exchange for payments. Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, was paid $5.1 million under its agreement with the US and has received around 30 deportees. 1 2 Centre · 2Rights groups and lawyers have fiercely criticised the program, and it faces legal challenges in the US and in some receiving countries. The Trump administration defends it as a way to quickly remove immigrants with final deportation orders when their home countries might not take them back. 1 2 Centre · 2Last month a US appeals court upheld a judge's ruling halting the program because immigrants were not given time to challenge removal to a third country over fears of persecution or torture. The US Supreme Court ruled last week to temporarily let the administration keep swiftly removing immigrants to third countries, and will hear arguments in December. 1 2

Centre · 2The program has largely been carried out in secrecy, with little transparency over how many people have been deported, where, and in what conditions they are held. 1 2