‘We still deserve due process,’ says Cambodian man deported by US to Eswatini | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

A. Cambodian man deported by US says he would have accepted deportation to Cambodia but was instead imprisoned in Eswatini; He knew very little about this country, and when he first read the name he thought it was just another immigration detention center in Louisiana.

Pheap Rom, who was convicted of attempted murder, was one of 10 deportees sent to Eswatini by the United States in October 2025. They joined a group of five people from Cambodia, Cuba, Jamaica, Vietnam and Yemen who were deported to the small southern African country in July. They were all sent to a maximum security prison. Roma were deported from Eswatini to Cambodia in March.

The US government labeled these men dangerous criminals. Their lawyers said they had already served their sentences for crimes committed in the United States.

After taking a plea deal, Rom was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the US for four counts of attempted murder. Shortly after his sentencing, he was told he would be deported to Cambodia, which he said he accepted.

“Even if you’re a convicted criminal, at the end of the day, we still deserve due process. If our due process is taken away, other people’s due process can be taken away as well,” said Rom, who came to the United States as a refugee in 1985 when he was three years old. “I do not deny the fact that I have received final orders and that I will be expelled, and I am happy with that. As long as I am sent to the country I need to be sent to.

“I may be free, but I want people to know that there are still people in prison in a third country,” he said.

Donald Trump’s administration has deported dozens of people to third countries from which they do not originate. African countries that have signed deportation agreements include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.

After Rom was released from prison, he was detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities for almost 11 months, he said. But Rom said he expected to be sent to Cambodia, which he had never visited before, because he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand.

Rom’s comments offer a rare insight into the process of deportation from the United States to third countries. He said he did not have the opportunity to speak with a lawyer after learning he would be sent to Eswatini, and his repeated attempts to object to being sent there were unsuccessful. Instead he was told: “Pack up your shit and go away.” He said 10 men were chained and squeezed tightly into the back of a jet for 21 hours.

Flight personnel said that, as far as they knew, the men would be free when they landed in Eswatini, a country of 1.3 million people landlocked by South Africa and Mozambique. Instead, according to Rom, they were met by rows of military personnel armed with machine guns and taken directly to the Matsapha correctional complex, a maximum security prison.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an earlier statement about the first five men to be deported to Eswatini, a spokesperson said: “If you come to our country illegally and break our laws you will be deported… These criminal illegal aliens deported to Eswatini are convicted murderers, pedophiles and gang members.

“Each of these criminal illegal aliens had a final deportation order. The truth is, those who are in our country illegally have a choice: they can leave the country voluntarily, or they can be arrested and deported.”

Rom said the group was given only one roll of toilet paper and one bar of soap per week. In the beginning the men shared clothes because some only had the clothes they came with. At first, he said, they were only allowed outside for 15 minutes a day and one phone call a week, but a local lawyer was barred from seeing them.

Rom said the mental health of individuals who are afraid to return to their countries due to human rights concerns or whose return is complicated by political factors between the United States and the government is worsening.

One went on a hunger strike for 30 days. “It was driving them crazy,” he said.

Eventually, detainees were allowed to use cell phones, spend more time outside their cells, and go to the store once a week.

Rom was deported to Cambodia on March 26, six months after the deported Orville Etoria was extradited to Jamaica. The governments of Jamaica and Cambodia have said they will accept their citizens directly from the United States.

Eswatini in March in question Four other people were deported from the United States, one from Tanzania, one from Sudan and two from Somalia.

Thabile Mdluli, a spokesman for the Eswatini government, which received $5.1 million (£3.8 million) from the US to accept the 160 deported people, said: “The government of the Kingdom of Eswatini has made every reasonable effort, in accordance with national laws and international obligations, to ensure that third-country nationals received from the US government are housed in conditions that respect their fundamental rights and human dignity.

“Eswatini is committed to protecting the dignity, security and well-being of all individuals within its borders.”