September 24, 2025
Orville Etoria was transported to and detained in the Southern African nation for months.
A Jamaican man who was deported and detained in Eswatini has finally been repatriated to his home country.
Orville Etoria, along with four other migrants, sat in a maximum-security prison in the Southern African nation for two months before his repatriation. According to the Associated Press, he was refused access to legal counsel multiple times and remained in custody despite no charges being filed against him.
He was sent to Eswatini under a Trump administration order, as part of the U.S. president’s third-country deportation program. Despite not being a native of Eswatini, and Jamaica’s willingness to receive him, Etoria was sent there. Amnesty International also noted how the nation had claims of rights abuses, heightening the stakes for the men’s legal justice.
With the help of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, Etoria was officially repatriated to Jamaica on Sept. 21. An Eswatini spokesperson confirmed the news.
Initially, the five men were brought to Eswatini, currently under absolute rule by its king, in mid-July. The Department of Homeland Security said the migrants were dangerous and were convicted of serious crimes, prompting their relocation. The DHS also asserted that they lived in the U.S. illegally and had deportation orders out against them.
The men’s lawyers doubted the legitimacy of the claims, saying they had all completed their criminal sentences and were sent to Eswatini without due process. Trump’s deportation program currently exists in four countries, including South Sudan, Ghana, and Rwanda.
The program has faced criticism from legal and human rights advocates, with opponents saying the program puts migrants at risk by transporting them to countries they are not connected to or do not hold citizenship in.
The DHS has said it has the right to transport dangerous migrants to any of these countries or they must leave the U.S. willingly.
While Etoria has found resolution, others remain detained in Eswatini with little information on the prison’s conditions.
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