US Deportation of Migrants to Swaziland
Embattled King Mswati III Weakened by Caving to the US Pressure to Accept Deportees
The move by the administration of US President Donald Trump to deport five convicted foreign nationals to the small landlocked southern African country of Swaziland had provoked domestic outrage against its embattled ruler, further undermining the legitimacy of King Mswati III.
The largest opposition party, People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), condemned the monarchy’s decision to let the US “dump its most dangerous criminals on Swazi soil” as “treacherous” in a statement on Tuesday 15 July.
The five deportees, convicted of violent crimes including murder and child rape, were “so uniquely barbaric that their home countries” in Asia and Latin America “refused to take them back,” the US Department of Homeland Security’s spokesperson had said, announcing the deportation on 15 July.
“Yet, Mswati acting as a merchant of our nation’s dignity has opened our doors to them” for his “personal financial gain,” treating the country, which had renamed as Eswatini, “as his personal property… to be sold off to the highest bidder,” PUDEMO added.
“Our already overcrowded and under-resourced prisons are filled with political prisoners… who are unjustly jailed for demanding democracy” in Africa’s last absolute monarchy. The ban on political parties imposed in 1973 by Mswati’s father, King Sobhuza II, remains in place to date.
The fight for democracy in Africa’s last absolute monarchy
Members of the parliament in Swaziland who are not directly appointed by the King are elected from a list of individuals approved by the King’s traditional chiefs from their respective constituencies.
Nevertheless, despite a lack of democratic rights, a vibrant pro-democracy movement has long thrived in the country, with banned political parties, trade unions, and student unions forming its backbone. In recent years, strong anti-monarchist sentiments have also spread across rural areas, as witnessed in the country-wide protests in mid-2021.
State violence used to repress it provoked an insurrection, amid which the monarch had fled the country, returning only after his army had put down the rebellion by killing over 70 people and arresting hundreds.
The monarchy has since been able to hold power only through violent repression and attacks on pro-democracy activists, bombing the residence of PUDEMO’s president, abducting and torturing activists of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS), among others.
However, anti-monarchist sentiments remain strong. All protests—be it for healthcare, education, or against the soaring cost-of-living—raise pro-democracy slogans, calling for the ouster of the King.
“Desperate for allies to his unpopular and illegitimate authority,” Mswati will “easily dance to the trumpet of Mr Trump,” the CPS said in its statement, labeling the “deal between the USA and despot Mswati” as an “international relations scandal.” Insisting on immediate dissolution of the monarchy, its statement said, “Mswati and his gangsters’ government are taking things too far.”
Demanding disclosure of any agreements he has signed with the US, the Multi Stakeholder Forum (MSF), a coalition of pro-democracy political parties and civil society organizations whose founder was assassinated in early-2023, said in statement:
“This situation sets a dangerous precedent whereby powerful nations may use smaller, economically weaker states as dumping grounds for unwanted individuals. This practice reeks of neo-colonial exploitation.”
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