Eswatini says it received more ‘third country’ deportees as part of deal with Trump administration
Eswatini says it received more ‘third country’ deportees as part of deal with Trump administration
Two deportees sent to Eswatini were from Somalia, one was from Sudan and another was from Tanzania
The government of Eswatini announced on Thursday it received four more “third country” deportees from the United States, as part of the Trump administration’s multimillion-dollar deal with the small African nation.
Now a total of 19 deportees from the US have been sent to Eswatini even as they hail from other countries, amid the Trump administration’s continued anti-immigrant crackdown and changes to immigration policy.
A system for monitoring people moved around by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the form of a flight tracker, run by the advocacy group Human Rights First, tracked the deportation flight to Eswatini. The flight apparently took off from Phoenix, Arizona, and landed in Eswatini in southern Africa at around 11pm ET on Wednesday night, according to the ICE flight monitor.
In a statement to the Guardian, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not provide details requested about the people deported to Eswatini. “The Trump administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised,” said the statement, attributed to a senior DHS official.
Two of the deportees sent to Eswatini on Wednesday night were from Somalia, one was from Sudan and one was from Tanzania, the government said. No identities or other details about them were disclosed by the authorities.
In the past year, the Trump administration has struck “third country” deals with numerous countries around the globe. The deals allow countries, often after payment from the US, to accept deported immigrants who are not their citizens.
A recent congressional investigation found that the Trump administration paid more than $32m to five foreign governments to accept a number of deportees.
“The administration is conducting questionable deals by making direct payments primarily to corrupt and unstable foreign governments with track records of public corruption, human rights abuses and human trafficking,” the investigation, carried out by Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee, reads.
Previous deportees to Eswatini, who arrived in July and October of last year, included nationals of Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and Yemen. A lawyer for some of the members of that earlier group, Alma David, told Reuters that a Cambodian man, Pheap Rom, was due to be repatriated to his country of origin. Rom would be the second person to be released from Eswatini custody after another man was sent back to Jamaica last year.
The Trump administration paid the small southern African country $5.1m to receive the deportees.
“In line with this agreement,” the Eswatini government said in a statement, “the nation has received another cohort of four third-country nationals from the United States.”
Eswatini is one of several African countries involved in third-country deportation deals with the US. Three men sent there last July filed a claim against Eswatini’s government with the African Union’s human rights body. They said their continued detention was an unlawful violation of their rights, the Guardian reported. The Eswatini high court last month threw out a case filed by local human rights lawyers that challenged it, though an appeal has been lodged.
Despite having served their sentences for crimes on US soil, the remainder of the third-country deportees sent to Eswatini last year were still in prison.
Reuters contributed reporting
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"All the Empty Rooms" wins Oscar for Steve Hartman's project memorializing children killed in school shootings
March 15, 2026 / 10:49 PM EDT / CBS News
The documentary "All the Empty Rooms," which memorialized children killed in school shootings through a look at the bedrooms they never returned to, took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Short at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday.
The film follows CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp along their seven-year journey to document the toll of America's school shooting epidemic. Director Joshua Seftel accepted the Oscar on stage alongside Hartman, producer Conall Jones and Gloria Cazares, whose daughter Jackie was killed in the Uvalde school shooting in 2022.
"The four empty rooms in our film belonged to four young children who were all killed in school shootings: Hallie, Gracie, Dominic and Jackie," Seftel told the crowd before passing the mic to Cazares.
Wearing red dress and a pin with an image of Jackie, Cazares spoke of her 9-year-old daughter and appealed for an end to gun violence.
"Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time," Cazares said. "Jackie is more than just a headline. She is our light and our life. Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, we'd be a different America."
When Hartman traveled to Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, Cazares told him that people are always telling her that they can't imagine what she's going through. But she said we need to imagine, and that's why she invited Hartman and Bopp into her home.
"It just makes everything more real for the public, for the world," Carazes said at the time. "Her room completely just speaks of who she was."
In Jackie's room, there was the chocolate she had saved for a day that never came, and an "About Me" chalkboard where she wrote that she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up.
Many of the children's rooms, like Jackie's, remained virtually untouched, years after the shootings.
"Their personalities shone through in the smallest details of their untouched rooms — hair ties on a doorknob, a toothpaste tube left uncapped, a ripped ticket for a school event — allowing me to uncover glimpses as to who they were," Bopp said in an essay about the project in 2024.
Explore the rooms:
Unmade beds and overdue books: Photographing the rooms of kids killed in school shootings
More from CBS "Sunday Morning":
Standing on the threshold of grief, documenting the bedrooms of kids killed in school shootings
Missed watching the 2026 Oscars? Here's how to watch the awards show now.
Updated on: March 15, 2026 / 10:59 PM EDT / CBS News
"Sinners" came into the 2026 Oscars with the most nominations ever, 16, but it was "One Battle After Another" that took home marquee awards like Best Picture and Best Director on Sunday night. Here's how to watch and what to know about the 98th annual Academy Awards.
Where to watch the Oscars with cable
The 98th annual Academy Awards were broadcast live on ABC stations, as well as on international networks worldwide, on Sunday, March 15, 2026.
How to stream the Oscars
The Oscars streamed live on Hulu and was available live on ABC.com and the ABC app if those services were connected to your regular TV provider. Other streaming services like YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and FuboTV also carried the show.
The Oscars will be available to stream Monday on ABC.com and Hulu for those who missed it live.
Who were the Oscar nominees?
"Sinners" was eyeing a big night after nabbing a record-breaking 16 nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor. Michael B. Jordan brought home the golden statue for taking on the dual roles of twin brothers Smoke and Stack, and Autumn Durald Arkapaw won for Best Cinematography, the first woman to win the award in Oscar history.
"One Battle After Another" was also up for a slew of top awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, the first Oscar wins for Paul Thomas Anderson after being nominated 11 times prior to this year's ceremony.
See the full list of winners and nominees here.
Go behind the scenes to see excerpts of performances and highlights of CBS News interviews with nominees in these top categories:
- Best Picture
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Supporting Actor
- Best Supporting Actress
Who hosted the Oscars?
Former late-night TV host Conan O'Brien handled hosting duties at the Academy Awards for a second straight year.
O'Brien took over as master of ceremonies for the show last year following a two-year stint from fellow comedian and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted the Oscars a total of four times.
Matt Berry, the star of TV shows such as "The IT Crowd," "What We Do in the Shadows" and "Toast of London," was the announcer for the Oscars this year.
Where were the Oscars held?
The 2026 Oscars were held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
