RETURN TALKS
Jamaica, Eswatini discuss repatriation of J’can man deported to African nation by US
Published:Friday | August 15, 2025 | 8:47 PMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
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The Jamaican Government has commenced talks with its counterparts in the Southern African nation of Eswatini for the return of a Jamaican man who was among five “barbaric criminals” deported there by United States (US) authorities, the foreign...
The Jamaican Government has commenced talks with its counterparts in the Southern African nation of Eswatini for the return of a Jamaican man who was among five “barbaric criminals” deported there by United States (US) authorities, the foreign ministry has disclosed.
The Jamaican has been identified as Orville Etoria, whose family is from the community of Port Royal in Kingston, sources revealed.
The confirmation by the Jamaican foreign ministry comes days after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Eswatini made a similar announcement through one of its social media accounts.
“The Eswatini Government has begun repatriation talks with the countries of the five convicted immigrants received from the United States of America recently,” the foreign ministry in Eswatini said in a message posted on its X account on August 7.
Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson declined to comment on the discussions.
“We are focused on getting him back home. This Government does not refuse its citizens,” Johnson Smith told The Gleaner on Thursday.
1997 murder conviction
Etoria was convicted of murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree in New York City on May 15, 1997, The Gleaner previously reported, citing online records from his 1999 appeal.
The appeal was dismissed, and the online court records did not disclose details of his crime.
Tricia McLaughlin, US Homeland Security assistant secretary, disclosed that the Jamaican and four other immigrants who were deported to Eswatini were all convicted criminals and “individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back”.
The Jamaican foreign ministry has denied the claim.
However, an op-ed article published in The New York CARIBNEWS showed another side of the Jamaican, revealing that Etoria earned a bachelor’s degree in prison, was enrolled in a master’s programme and well on the way to rebuilding his life.
He earned his bachelor’s degree through the Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison and the New York-based Mercy College and later enrolled in a master’s programme at the New York Theological Seminary, the report said.
It said the Jamaican graduated in 2018 as part of the largest college commencement ever held inside the prison.
“A milestone so significant it was formally recognised and celebrated by Mercy College. When Orville walked that graduation stage, he carried generations with him,” it noted.
He was granted parole in 2021 – “something hard-won and rare in New York State”.
“He was rebuilding his life, but recently, the US deported him not to Jamaica, his home, but to Eswatini. This isn’t enforcement. This is exile. He’s now locked away again – not because he failed but because he succeeded too quietly,” the report said.