A Laotian man sent by the United States to Eswatini after completing his American prison sentence has been released from detention in the southern African kingdom after more than 14 months, his lawyer said. Phone Chomsavanh left Eswatini on Sunday, 4 October, and travelled through Johannesburg towards Laos.
The departure highlights the prolonged detention that can follow Washington’s transfer of migrants to countries where they have no ties. Tin Thanh Nguyen, his US-based lawyer, confirmed the release and onward journey, according to the Associated Press. An Eswatini government spokesperson had not immediately acknowledged the release.
Chomsavanh was among five men transferred to Eswatini in July 2025 and held at the Matsapha Correctional Complex. The men had convictions in the United States, but had completed their sentences before the transfer, AP reported. “He had already served his time,” Nguyen said. “No notice, no hearing, no chance to object. That is not due process by any definition.”
Those comments express the lawyer’s account and legal assessment. The available reporting does not establish that Chomsavanh’s release resulted from a court order.
Eswatini’s participation was formalised through a memorandum signed on 14 May 2025. According to Amnesty International’s account of the published agreement, the kingdom agreed to accept up to 160 third-country nationals removed from the United States in exchange for $5.1 million. The stated purpose of the funding was “to build its border and migration management capacity”.
The payment covered the wider arrangement. It was not a fee specifically assigned to Chomsavanh, and the agreement’s maximum number should not be confused with the number actually transferred. Business Insider Africa previously reported the confirmation of the US payment, placing Eswatini among African governments receiving financial or diplomatic benefits for participating in Washington’s deportation programme.
The arrangement has faced sustained criticism over the treatment of people held after serving their American sentences. In April 2026, Eswatini’s Supreme Court upheld a High Court order allowing lawyers access to deportees at Matsapha, according to Amnesty International. The organisation welcomed the decision but said access to counsel did not resolve its concerns about continued detention. It urged the authorities to disclose the legal basis for holding the men and ensure that they could challenge onward removal.
That ruling concerned access to lawyers. It should not be presented as a judgment ordering Chomsavanh’s release.
Chomsavanh is not the first member of the original group to leave Eswatini. The kingdom previously repatriated Jamaican national Orville Isaac Etoria in September 2025. The Trump administration has defended third-country removals as a way to deport people whose home countries will not immediately accept them.
Chomsavanh’s case illustrates how that policy can place another government between removal from the United States and eventual return to a person’s country of nationality. His departure ends his reported confinement in Eswatini. It leaves unanswered why he remained there for more than a year, what authorised that detention and what arrangements await him in Laos.
