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Laotian man freed from eSwatini jail 14 months after US third-country deportation

A Laotian citizen deported by the United States to eSwatini under Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was released from a maximum-security prison in the African…

By Samantha Johnson / October 5, 2026
A Laotian citizen deported by the United States to eSwatini under Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was released from a maximum-security prison in the African nation on Sunday after being held there for more than a year, his lawyer said.

Phone Chomsavanh was among five immigrants deported to eSwatini – where he has no ties – in July 2025, in the early days of the Trump administration’s secretive and highly contentious third-country deportation programme.

Chomsavanh’s US-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said in a statement announcing his release that he had been informed that he was being deported to eSwatini only shortly before a military cargo plane carrying him and other deportees landed there more than 14 months ago.

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