A tiny African kingdom ruled by one of the world’s last absolute monarchs has quietly become part of President Donald Trump’s expanding global deportation strategy, a move now sparking legal outrage, public protests and fears that poorer nations are being drawn into Western migration battles for money and political favour.
The arrangement reportedly allowed the southern African kingdom to receive deportees from countries including Cuba, Jamaica, Cambodia and Laos, people who had no ties to Eswatini itself.
So far, 19 migrants have reportedly been detained in a prison near the capital, Mbabane.
Behind the deal lies a mix of geopolitics, aid dependence and strategic diplomacy.
Eswatini, a landlocked country of about 1.2 million people where roughly a third of citizens live below the World Bank’s extreme poverty line, has long relied heavily on foreign support.
