By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Eswatini’s Finance Minister, Neal Rijkenberg on Tuesday confirmed that his country has received the sum of $5.1 million from the U.S. government under a deal to accept third-country nationals deported by Washington.
Eswatini is among several African nations that agreed to receive third-country deportees as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The finance minister in a text message confirmed the $5.1 million credit to his country but declined to give further details, saying the transaction was handled by the Prime Minister and that he was unaware of it until afterwards.
Details of the agreements with the countries under the deal, which include South Sudan, Ghana and Rwanda have not been disclosed.
Eswatini’s government is facing legal challenge from human rights lawyers who claim the secretive transfer of the deportees was illegal.
An unverified copy of the agreement was sighted by Reuters but both governments have so far declined to comment on.
The document, signed on May 14 in Eswatini’s capital Mbabane, said that the U.S. would provide Eswatini with $5.1 million to “build its border and migration management capacity” and that in exchange, Eswatini would accept up to 160 third-country deportees.
“We have no comment on the details of our diplomatic communications with other governments,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said, adding that implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies was a top priority.
The U.S. has sent at least 15 immigrants to Eswatini so far. They are imprisoned there, except for one who was repatriated to Jamaica.
