Sawt Falasteen - Cambodian deported by US faced 'misery' in Eswatini prison

When Rom and nine other men -- shackled and escorted onto a plane by US authorities -- landed in the kingdom of Eswatini in October, they were greeted on the tarmac by a squad of "military guys with guns and masks", the 43-year-old said.

"I didn't know what was going to happen," he told AFP in an interview in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, where he was repatriated in late March.

"I didn't understand why I was being deported to Africa because I'm Cambodian."

Rom is one of around 20 men the United States has deported to landlocked Eswatini -- bordering South Africa and Mozambique -- under a Trump administration scheme challenged in courts and described by rights advocates as akin to "human trafficking".

Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, is among several "third countries" accepting migrants under shadowy deals enabling the US president's push for mass deportations.

The nation formerly known as Swaziland agreed to accept up to 160 deportees in exchange for around $5.1 million, with plans to forward them to their home countries after Washington said their direct repatriations were denied.

But Rom -- living in the United States with "permanent resident" status since 1985 after his family fled Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime -- is just the second to be repatriated from Eswatini, after a Jamaican was returned home last year.

The remainder may still be trapped inside the deportation process, opaque even to those inside it.

- 'In good hands' -

Rom served a 15-year prison sentence in the United States after pleading guilty to attempted murder for firing a gun during two neighbourhood disputes, leaving several people wounded.

"I know what I did was wrong," he said. "I accepted my punishment."

He was detained by immigration authorities upon his release in November 2024, and his green card was revoked after an immigration judge ordered his deportation due to his felony conviction.

He expected to be sent to Cambodia. But landing in Eswatini was like turning back the clock to his prison term, Rom said.

His jailers seemed unaware that the men had served their time and looked at them as if they were "criminals because of what the (US) administration was portraying us to be".

For the first two months at the Matsapha Correctional Centre, Rom said he and fellow deportees "went through misery" -- allowed outdoors for only 15 minutes a day and given one weekly phone call.

"We had an attorney there that was willing to try to come and talk to us, but they weren't letting that attorney in," he said.

Lawyers in Eswatini have corroborated his claim to AFP, saying they have been repeatedly denied access to people expelled by the United States who have been detained without charge.

Eswatini's government has said US deportees were "in good hands" and receiving healthcare, including counselling.

- 'Uniquely barbaric' -

Much of Trump's deportation campaign has been executed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), criticised for using heavy-handed tactics during crackdowns in US cities.

ICE did not reply to a request for comment about Rom's case.

In July, when the first deportees were sent to Eswatini, a US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said on social media they were "so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back".

But Rom and his lawyer Tin Thanh Nguyen both expressed doubts the agency even tried to deport him directly to Cambodia, the only country where he has citizenship.

Nguyen is struggling to piece together the logic that led to his client being marooned in a country where he had no ties.

The lawyer painted a picture of a chaotic process, saying Rom was not interviewed in the United States to verify his nationality and was registered for deportation to Thailand, the country where he was born in a refugee camp.

"If ICE was requesting travel documents from Thailand, they went to the wrong country," Nguyen told AFP.

Chann Rotana, a spokesman for Cambodia's foreign ministry, told AFP that the United States had previously sent Cambodian deportees to the country directly with no issues.

"We also don't know why the US this time sent him to Eswatini," the spokesman said.

Now living in Phnom Penh after the Cambodian government facilitated his repatriation from Eswatini, Rom said he was still "getting used to the freedom" but was ready to move on.

Eventually, he hopes to find work, stay in touch with his relatives in the United States and start a new family in Cambodia, he said.

"I want to create a new memory here, because this is my second chance in life."

T.Khatib--SF-PST