This comes after the government of eSwatini, this week, confirmed that the US had sent five immigrants convicted of various crimes to the country. As President, Donald Trump ramps up his deportation efforts.

The five men are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Yemen, Cuba and Laos and have been convicted of crimes ranging from child rape to murder in the US.

‘Section 74 of the Correctional Services Act number 13 of 2017, only allows a transfer of a Swati citizen, who’s convicted in foreign lands, to be brought in to serve the remainder of their sentence or for eSwatini to send a prisoner exchange to the native country of a person who may have been convicted in Swaziland for violating our domestic law,” says PUDEMO President Mlungisi Makhanya.

Makhanya says the transfer of the Convicted Offenders Act number 10 of 2021 does not allow anyone who is convicted of murder to come to our shores.

Makhanya has also accused the country’s ruling Monarch, King Mswati the third, of cashing in on the agreement with the US.

“This is nothing but a transaction between Mswati and Trump. Mswati has cashed in at the expense of the people of Swaziland. It defeats any logic why these countries will reject the deportation of these criminals from America and then accept them when they are sent by Swaziland. What leverage would Swaziland have over those countries that America couldn’t have?” he explains.

--SABC--