A Laotian man deported by the United States to Eswatini under the Trump administration’s controversial third-country deportation programme has been released from a maximum-security prison after more than a year in detention and has left the southern African country, his lawyer said.
Phone Chomsavanh, one of five migrants deported to Eswatini in July 2025, was released on Sunday and travelled to Johannesburg en route to Laos, according to his US-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen.
Nguyen said Chomsavanh was informed only shortly before landing that he was being deported to Eswatini, a country with which he had no known ties.
His release marks the latest development in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which included the transfer of some deportees to third countries rather than returning them directly to their nations of origin.
The programme, launched last year, drew criticism from migrant rights groups and legal advocates over concerns about transparency, due process and the conditions facing deportees sent to countries where they had no family or community connections.
JN/APA