The migrants—citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos—had served prison sentences in the U.S. for serious crimes, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the five men as "individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back."

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.