Cape Town, South Africa — A Cambodian man deported by the United States to an African state eswatini under the trump administration third country program His lawyer said he was released from jail on Wednesday to return home.
Fip Rome was deported to the southern African country in October and is being held in a maximum-security prison along with other deportees. His US-based lawyer Tinh Thanh Nguyen told The Associated Press that he was to take a commercial flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, to begin his trip to Cambodia.
America has sent 19 immigrants from other countries to Eswatini in three batches From July. Rome is the second person to return home.
US President Donald Trump has taken a tough stance on immigration and the US has deported about 300 migrants to countries with which they have no ties under the Third Country Program, which lawyers have criticized as illegal.
America has made a deal at least seven African nations To pick up some of those immigrants. According to details of the deal released by the US State Department, the US paid Eswatini $5.1 million to take in 160 deported people.
Rom served a 15-year prison sentence in the US for attempted murder and is due to be released in late 2024. Nguyen said in a statement that Rom was illegally held in an Eswatini prison for five months because he faced no criminal charges in the African country.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
