An immigrant deported by the US and held in an African prison for more than a year has been released

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A Laotian citizen, Phone Chomsavanh, who was deported by the United States to Eswatini under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, has been released from a maximum-security prison in the African nation after being held there for more than a year, his lawyer announced. Phone, among five immigrants deported to Eswatini in July 2025, had only been informed he was being sent there shortly before the military cargo plane carrying him and other deportees landed in the country.

He had served his U.S. sentences and was convicted of serious crimes in the U.S., but was deported to a country he had never heard of and had no ties to. Phone's U.S.-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, stated that Chomsavanh had left the country and landed in Johannesburg en route to Laos. Eswatini, which received around 30 deportees under the program, paid $5.1 million to the Trump administration.

The third-country deportation program has been criticized by rights groups and lawyers for holding immigrants in countries they have no ties to and where they haven't been charged with any crime.