Liberia to Accept 1,200 Third-Country Deportees from the US Within a Year

Liberia said Tuesday it has agreed to receive as many as 1,200 deportees from the United States over the next year, part of a new arrangement between Washington and Monrovia involving third-country nationals.

The deal stands out as one of the most significant agreements of its type during the Trump administration’s broader push on immigration enforcement. Liberian President Joseph Boakai was among five West African leaders who visited the White House last year for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Liberia’s Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told reporters that the first arrivals under the agreement — a group of 20 deportees — are expected to land on Thursday.

According to Piah, the 1,200 people slated to be sent to Liberia over the coming 12 months will include African nationals, as well as individuals from North America, South America and the Caribbean.

Piah said those arriving in Liberia would be treated “as guests,” noting that they would be free to leave the country if they choose and would also have the option to seek asylum there.

He added that the United States will provide assistance to help Liberia administer the program and improve its migration infrastructure. Piah emphasized, however, that the agreement was not a quid pro quo and that Liberia was not seeking payment from the U.S. government in return for accepting the deportees.

“Liberia’s gesture is entirely humanitarian and in keeping with the country’s longstanding traditions,” he said. “The government of Liberia intends to provide the transferred persons with the necessary support to seek protection in Liberia and to be safe during their stay here.”

Liberia’s government referenced its historical ties to the United States, including its roots in a 19th-century settlement established for free and formerly enslaved Black Americans and its history as a country with “a long history of accepting people seeking refuge from political and other crises.”

Liberia’s Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said that the country has screened the migrants ahead of their arrival.

“Most of them are people who had immigration violations and offenses,” he said.

The Liberian government said the arriving deportees are not criminals and are not being prosecuted under U.S. or Liberian law.

Since Trump returned to the White House in January of last year, his administration has reached several deals with African countries to accept third-country deportees, including in some cases migrants who have legal protections barring their return to their countries of origin because of risks of torture, persecution or other abuses. It was not immediately clear whether any members of the group being sent to Liberia have such protections.

Under several agreements that have not always been publicly disclosed in full, the administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, with about 10 of them in Africa, according to immigration advocates.

The administration has defended the third-country deals as lawful, saying federal immigration law permits the government to remove migrants to willing third countries. The Supreme Court last year stayed a lower-court order that had imposed additional procedural requirements on third-country removals while litigation continued.

The U.S.-Liberia agreement says Liberia will not return a transferred person to their home country while a protection claim is pending and that both governments intend to act consistently with their obligations under refugee and anti-torture law.

Rights groups say some migrants have been sent to countries they have never visited or where they could face safety risks, potentially increasing pressure on them to return to their countries of origin.

Other African countries that have taken in third-country deportees include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone.