Deported to Eswatini: Cambodian refugee questions controversial US policy

Lead

A Cambodian man who spent months in an Eswatini prison after being deported from the United States says he would have accepted removal to Cambodia, but instead was sent to a country he had never heard of. Pheap Rom, 43, arrived in the US as a refugee in 1985 and held permanent resident status, but after serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder, he was detained by immigration authorities and eventually flown to the small southern African kingdom.

Rom told AFP in an interview in Phnom Penh, where he was repatriated in late March, that when he first read the name “Eswatini,” he thought it was another immigration detention center in Louisiana. He said he and nine other men landed in Eswatini in October 2025, greeted on the tarmac by “military guys with guns and masks.” He said, “I didn’t know what was going to happen... I didn’t understand why I was being deported to Africa because I’m Cambodian.”

Coverage comparison

Multiple sources have covered the case, focusing on different aspects. The Guardian’s reporting centered on a recent ruling by Eswatini’s supreme court, which held that four deportees have the right to see a local lawyer. That ruling came after the men had been denied in-person legal counsel for nine months while held in a maximum-security prison. Africa News and AFP, in a separate report, highlighted Rom’s personal story and the broader policy of deporting people to third countries, including the financial arrangements with Eswatini.

Key claims

Denial of legal counsel: According to The Guardian, four men deported by the US to Eswatini—from Cambodia, Cuba, Vietnam, and Yemen—were denied in-person legal counsel for nine months. Eswatini’s correctional services refused to let a local lawyer see them, although the men were allowed to call their US lawyers. Eswatini’s supreme court rejected the government’s argument that the men showed no interest in meeting the human rights lawyer Sibusiso Magnificent Nhlabatsi. The judges ruled: “There can be no real harm in granting the respondent access to the detainees.”

Criminal labels: The US government labeled the men as dangerous criminals, but their lawyers said they had already served sentences for crimes committed in the US. Rom, for example, pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder after firing a gun during two neighborhood disputes, leaving several people wounded. He told AFP, “I know what I did was wrong... I accepted my punishment.” He said he expected to be deported to Cambodia, but instead was sent to Eswatini.

Third-country deportations: The US has deported dozens of people to countries from which they do not originate, including Ghana, South Sudan, and Uganda, according to multiple reports. Eswatini agreed to accept up to 160 deportees in exchange for around $5.1 million, with plans to forward them to their home countries after Washington said direct repatriations were denied.

Conditions in detention: Rom told journalists that he was allowed only 15 minutes outside each day and one phone call a week while held in Eswatini’s maximum-security prison. He was one of about 20 men deported to Eswatini under the policy, and he is only the second to be repatriated, after a Jamaican man was returned home in September.

Perspectives

The US Department of Homeland Security has defended the policy, telling AFP that allegations of human trafficking were “insane” and that the deportations were a lawful means of removing criminal illegal aliens. A spokesperson for Eswatini’s government, Thabile Mdluli, previously said that “the government of the Kingdom of Eswatini has made every reasonable effort, in accordance with national laws and international obligations,” though she did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the court ruling.

Lawyers for the deportees have been critical. Alma David, a US lawyer for several of the men, told The Guardian: “The fact that it took nearly nine months of litigation and a decision by the highest court of the land to obtain something as innocuous as permission for my clients to meet with a local lawyer speaks volumes about how hard the government of Eswatini is fighting to deny these men the most basic of rights.”

Rom’s lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, expressed doubts that the US agency even tried to deport him directly to Cambodia, a claim not independently verified. Rom himself, now free, said he wants people to know that others remain in prison in third countries: “I might be free, but I want people to know that there’s still people that are still in prison in a third country.”