in an expansion of the Trump administration’s largely secretive third-country deportation programme. The US has already deported eight men to another African country, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. The South Sudanese government has declined to say where those men, also described as violent criminals, are after it took custody of them nearly two weeks ago.

In a late-night post on X on Tuesday, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the five men sent to Eswatini, who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, had arrived on a deportation plane. She said they were all convicted criminals and “individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back”. The men “have been terrorising American communities” but were now “off of American soil”, McLaughlin added.

McLaughlin said they had been convicted of crimes including murder and child rape and one was a “confirmed” gang member. Her social media posts included mug shots of the men and what she said were their criminal records and sentences. They were not named.

It was not clear if the men had been deported from prison or if they were detained in immigration operations, and the Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t immediately respond to requests for clarification.

The Eswatini government said Wednesday the men, which it referred to as “prisoners” and “inmates”, were being held in isolated units in unnamed correctional facilities in Eswatini but were considered to be in transit and would ultimately be sent back to their home countries. (Jamaica Gleaner)