Laotian Man Released from Eswatini Prison After Year-Long US Deportation

Laotian citizen Phone Chomsavanh was released Sunday from Eswatini's Matsapha Correctional Complex after more than 14 months of detention. He was one of five immigrants deported there in July 2025 under the Trump administration's third-country removal program, despite having already served U.S. sentences for serious crimes.

Lawyer Tin Thanh Nguyen said Chomsavanh received no notice, hearing, or chance to object before being placed on a military cargo plane to a nation he had never heard of. "That is not due process by any definition," Nguyen stated. Chomsavanh has since left Eswatini and landed in Johannesburg en route to Laos.

“He had already served his time. Instead they put him on a plane without telling him where it was headed and left him in a prison in a country he had never heard of, where nobody ever accused him of anything. That is not due process by any definition.”

Born in a Thai refugee camp to parents who fled Laos, Chomsavanh moved to the United States at age seven. Advocacy groups Human Rights First and Refugees International estimate roughly 500 immigrants have been deported from the U.S. to African countries that are not their home nations since the program began last year.

Around a dozen African nations have accepted third-country deportees, some in exchange for undisclosed considerations. The Eswatini government has not publicly acknowledged Chomsavanh's release.