Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo confirmed to CNN last week that the East African nation had “agreed with the United States to accept up to 250 migrants,” in a deal that allows the government “to approve each individual proposed for resettlement.”
Rwanda has become the third African nation to reach an agreement with the Trump administration to accept migrants deported by the United States.
The United States has previously deported eight dangerous felons who were illegally present in the country to South Sudan, as well as five others to Eswatini.
Here’s what we know about US President Donald Trump’s third-country deportation program in Africa, as well as the largely clandestine arrangements being struck.
South Sudan
In early July, the United States transferred eight men from South Sudan, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, and Vietnam to South Sudan in East Africa after their deportations were delayed due to a judicial appeal. As a result, they spent weeks in a modified shipping container at an American military facility in nearby Djibouti.
US officials stated that the individuals had been convicted of violent offenses in the United States. When it seized possession of them a month ago, the South Sudanese government promised to safeguard their “safety and well-being,” but has refused to provide additional information, such as where the men are being detained and what their fate may be.
South Sudan has been plagued by warfare since its independence from Sudan in 2011, and the country is once again on the verge of civil war.
Human Rights’ Abuse in Eswatini
Two weeks after the South Sudan deportations, the United States claimed that it had deported another five individuals – Vietnamese, Jamaican, Cuban, Yemeni, and Laotian – to Eswatini, a small southern African kingdom.
The US Department of Homeland Security stated that they were also violent felons whose home nations refused to return them.
Eswatini’s administration stated that the prisoners will be held in solitary confinement until their repatriation, which may take up to a year.
A human rights lawyer in Eswatini has taken officials to court, claiming the men are being refused legal representation while being confined in a maximum-security jail and disputing the constitutionality of holding them permanently after serving their criminal sentences in the United States.
“Eswatini is not a Prison for US Rejects.”
Civil society and opposition groups in Eswatini have expressed outrage after the US deported five men to the country, with the largest opposition party calling it “human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal”.
Eswatini, formerly… pic.twitter.com/7YCqWuFM09
— FactRefuge (@FactRefuge) July 25, 2025
US authorities didn’t name the men or say if they had been deported straight from prison or detained in another way.
Eswatini, which borders South Africa, is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies. King Mswati III has ruled since he turned 18 in 1986. Authorities under him are accused of violently subduing pro-democracy movements in a country where political parties are effectively banned.
Rwanda—a Better Deal this Time Around
Rwanda’s deal with the United States comes after a disputed migrant accord it signed with the United Kingdom in 2022 failed and was declared illegal by Britain’s Supreme Court. That agreement was meant to relocate persons seeking asylum in the United Kingdom to Rwanda, where they would remain if their cases were successful.
The disastrous transaction ultimately cost the UK about a billion dollars in public funds, including approximately $300 million that it gave to Rwanda but did not receive back.
Rwanda stated that deportees from the United States will be resettled there and provided with job training, healthcare, and housing assistance. Kigali has previously partnered with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) to temporarily host asylum seekers and refugees evacuated from North African nation Libya, with nearly 3000 arrivals recorded between 2019 and 2025.
Analysts believe that African nations may be expecting a variety of incentives from the Trump administration in exchange for accepting deportees, such as lower tariff rates, aid and other financial help, and possibly the lifting of penalties on some of their politicians.