Lao deportee released from Eswatini prison after more than a year, lawyer says
Phone Chomsavanh, a Laotian citizen sent by the United States to Eswatini in July 2025, has been released from a maximum-security prison, according to his lawyer. He is being deported to Laos after spending more than a year in a country where he had no known ties or criminal case.
A Laotian citizen deported by the United States to Eswatini has been released from a maximum-security prison after more than a year in detention, his lawyer said. Phone Chomsavanh was among five immigrants sent to Eswatini in July 2025 under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation programme. His lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said Chomsavanh had been told only shortly before departure that he would be taken to the African country.
Nguyen said Chomsavanh had already completed his US sentence before being transferred to Eswatini. He was held at Matsapha Correctional Complex, near the administrative capital, Mbabane, despite having no ties there and not being accused of a crime in Eswatini. The lawyer said Chomsavanh had left Eswatini and reached Johannesburg while travelling onward to Laos.
An Eswatini government spokesperson did not immediately acknowledge the release, according to the source material. Chomsavanh was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his parents fled Laos, and moved to the United States with his family when he was seven, Nguyen said. Advocacy groups Human Rights First and Refugees International estimate that about 500 immigrants have been sent from the US to African countries that are not their home nations since the programme began last year.
About a dozen African countries have accepted such deportees, with some receiving payments. The agreement cited in the source material says Eswatini was paid $5.1 million and has received about 30 deportees. Rights groups and lawyers have criticised the programme, which has faced legal challenges.
A US appeals court recently upheld a ruling halting it on grounds that people were not given time to challenge removal to a third country if they feared persecution or torture. The US Supreme Court has temporarily allowed the administration to continue removals while it prepares to hear arguments in December.
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