The United States has deported multiple individuals to African nations as part of arrangements with third countries when direct deportation to home countries is not feasible, according to recent cases that have drawn attention to immigration enforcement practices.

Pheap Rom, a Cambodian man previously convicted of attempted murder, was among 15 people deported by the US to Eswatini in 2025 after completing their sentences. Rom was part of a group of 10 deportees sent to the southern African kingdom in October, joining five others who had been sent there in July from various countries including Cambodia, Cuba, Jamaica, Vietnam and Yemen. All deportees were placed in a maximum-security prison upon arrival.

Rom, who said he would have accepted deportation to Cambodia, reported being unfamiliar with Eswatini and initially mistaking the country's name for another detention facility in Louisiana. He was subsequently deported from Eswatini to Cambodia in March.

A separate case involves Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadorian national whose situation has become prominent in immigration debates. García was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year and has since been fighting a second deportation. On Tuesday, US government attorneys informed a federal judge that the Department of Homeland Security still intends to deport García to Liberia.

This announcement came despite a recent agreement between the US and Costa Rica for the Central American nation to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their home countries. García has been challenging proposed deportations to various African countries suggested by homeland security officials.

These cases illustrate the complex challenges faced by immigration authorities when individuals cannot be directly returned to their countries of origin, leading to arrangements with third countries willing to accept such deportees.