Orville Isaac Etoria’s journey over the past two months reads like a script from a Kafkaesque drama—except every detail is all too real. The 62-year-old Jamaican man, who had spent decades in the United States after arriving as a child, was abruptly deported in July 2025 not to his homeland, but to the small southern African kingdom of Eswatini. There, he languished for more than seven weeks in a maximum-security prison, held without charge and denied access to legal counsel, as reported by multiple sources including The Gleaner and Arab News. This week, after a convoluted international effort, Etoria is finally back home in Jamaica—a homecoming that raises as many questions as it answers about the U.S. government’s controversial third-country deportation program.
On the evening of September 22, Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kamina Johnson Smith, announced that Etoria was safely back in Jamaica. “We reaffirm that the wellbeing of Jamaicans overseas is a constant priority for the Government and note that this case is another example of the importance of international cooperation and the role of our diplomatic network in protecting the rights of Jamaican nationals abroad,” Johnson Smith said, as quoted by The Gleaner. She expressed gratitude to Eswatini for its cooperation and to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for its direct support, adding, “Together, our combined efforts ensured Mr Etoria’s safe return.”
Etoria’s ordeal began in mid-July, when he was one of five men—hailing from Jamaica, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen—deported by the United States to Eswatini under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), these men were “dangerous criminals” whose home countries supposedly refused to take them back. The DHS specifically described them as “so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” a statement widely reported and attributed to the department’s mid-July announcement.
But this narrative quickly unraveled. The New York-based Legal Aid Society, which represented Etoria, countered that the U.S. government had falsely claimed Jamaica refused to accept him. In fact, Jamaican authorities insisted they were willing to receive their citizen. “The US government had falsely claimed that Jamaica refused to accept him back,” the Legal Aid Society stated, as reported by The Gleaner and corroborated by Eswatini’s own government. Eswatini officials, for their part, said the five men were only in transit and that they would be sent home—a claim that directly contradicted the U.S. assertion of refusal.
Etoria’s legal team alleged that the U.S. had deported him unlawfully, sending him to a country with which he had no ties, and that he and the other four men were denied visits by a lawyer while detained in Eswatini. “The lawyers had said the U.S. sent him to the southern African nation under the Trump administration's third country deportation program even though Jamaica was willing to take him back,” AP reported. The Legal Aid Society further noted that Etoria had already served a 25-year sentence for his crime—murder, according to DHS—and had been released on parole in 2021 before being deported and re-imprisoned without due process.
The story of Etoria is not unique. He was the first publicly identified among at least 20 deportees sent by the United States to various African nations in the past two months as part of the same program, according to The Gleaner. The other four men deported alongside him—citizens of Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen—remain in detention in Eswatini as efforts to repatriate them continue, as confirmed by Eswatini government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli. “There were ‘engagements’ with the other four men from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen to have them sent home,” Mdluli said.
The U.S. government’s third-country deportation initiative, revived and expanded by President Donald Trump, aims to ramp up removals of immigrants who have completed their sentences but remain in the country illegally. According to Arab News and AP, the U.S. has deported individuals to at least four African countries under this program: South Sudan, Eswatini, Rwanda, and Ghana. Agreements are in place with Uganda, though no deportations there have yet been announced.
The program has drawn sharp criticism from legal advocates and human rights groups. Critics argue that the removals are designed to stoke fear among migrants and encourage “self-deportation” to their home countries rather than risk being sent to distant places with which they have no connection. “Critics say the US removals to third countries aim to stoke fear among migrants and encourage them to ‘self deport’ to their home countries rather than be sent to distant places they have no connection with,” Arab News reported. The Legal Aid Society and other defenders point out that all five men deported to Eswatini had completed their criminal sentences, yet were sent overseas to be held in another prison without charges or due process.
Eswatini, a tiny kingdom bordering South Africa, is ruled by an absolute monarch and has faced international criticism for its human rights record, particularly regarding political opposition and pro-democracy movements. The country’s government, however, emphasized in its statement that Etoria was repatriated “of his own volition” and was “warmly welcomed by members of his family” upon his return to Jamaica.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s approach to these deportations has sparked controversy not just for its secrecy but also for the sweeping language used to justify the removals. When announcing the deportation of the five men to Eswatini, DHS stated that their home countries refused to take them back because they were “so uniquely barbaric.” Yet, Eswatini’s government and several of the men’s home countries have publicly contradicted that claim, saying they were never unwilling to repatriate their citizens.
For Etoria, the ordeal has ended—at least for now. The Jamaican government has asked the public and media to respect his desire for a quiet return, and officials have underscored the importance of international cooperation in protecting the rights of citizens abroad. As Johnson Smith put it, “We are grateful to the Government of Eswatini for its cooperation in this matter and for the duty of care it has exercised. We also thank the IOM [International Organization for Migration] for its direct support and commend our High Commission in Pretoria for their hands-on engagement.”
But for the other men still detained in Eswatini, and for the broader community of migrants facing similar fates under the U.S. third-country deportation program, the story is far from over. Their continued detention, the legal and diplomatic wrangling over their status, and the human cost of such policies remain pressing issues on the international stage. Etoria’s case, with its twists and reversals, stands as a stark reminder of the complexities—and the human consequences—of immigration enforcement in an era of hardening borders and shifting alliances.
