Cambodian man deported by the US to Eswatini is being repatriated, his lawyer says

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A Cambodian man deported by the United States to the African kingdom of Eswatini under the Trump administration’s third-country program was released from a prison Wednesday to be repatriated, his lawyer said.

Pheap Rom was deported to the southern African nation in October and held at a maximum-security prison with other deportees. He was due to take a commercial flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, to start his journey to Cambodia, his U.S.-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, told The Associated Press.

The U.S. has sent 19 migrants from other countries to Eswatini in three batches since July. Rom is the second to be repatriated.

U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hard-line stance on immigration and the U.S. has deported around 300 migrants to countries they have no ties with under the third-country program, which lawyers have criticized as unlawful.

The U.S. has struck deals with at least seven African nations to take some of those migrants. The U.S. paid Eswatini $5.1 million to take up to 160 deportees, according to details of the deal released by the U.S. State Department.

Rom served a 15-year prison sentence in the U.S. for attempted murder and was released in late 2024, Nguyen said, adding in a statement that Rom was illegally held at the prison in Eswatini for five months because he faced no criminal charges in the African country.

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