The government of Eswatini has confirmed that the migrants are currently being held in its prisons. They have been put in isolated cells, as authorities acknowledged “widespread concerns” about the mi

Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is a landlocked country bordering Mozambique and South Africa. The nation is smaller than Maryland, suffers from severe poverty, high unemployment and the world's highest rate of HIV and AIDS, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) was not involved in the removal of third-country migrants from the United States to Eswatini and has not been contacted to helpsend them back home, the agency said on Thursday.

The deportees, from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen, had criminal records which included convictions for murder, homicide and child rape.