"The third countries that have received or been about to receive third-country deportees so far—El Salvador, Libya, South Sudan, now Eswatini—are marked by serious pre-existing human rights violations. This is a recipe for prolonged arbitrary detention or worse."

The US says it has deported what it described as five "criminal illegal aliens" to the southern African kingdom of Eswatini.

The memo instructs ICE employees on how to deport people to countries other than their country of origin, in some cases in as little as six hours.