Liberia to Accept 1,200 Third-Country Deportees From U.S.

Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the United States over the next year, officials in the West African country said Tuesday, marking one of the largest such arrangements under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

The first batch of 20 deportees is expected to arrive Thursday, Liberia's Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told reporters. The full group of 1,200 will include Africans as well as nationals from North America, South America and the Caribbean, he said.

The agreement is part of a broader, often secretive push by the Trump administration to deport thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, according to advocates, with about 10 of those countries in Africa.

A central concern with such arrangements is that they can involve migrants who hold protection orders from a U.S. immigration judge barring their return to their home countries over safety fears. Piah did not say whether any of the deportees bound for Liberia hold such orders.

Liberia's Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said the government has screened the list of migrants ahead of their arrival. "Most of them are people who had immigration violations and offenses," he said.

Piah said the deportees "may wish to seek asylum" in Liberia after arrival or "can leave the country whenever they desire." He said Liberia will receive U.S. support to manage the program and strengthen its migration system, describing the arrangement as "entirely humanitarian and in keeping with the country's longstanding traditions."

Immigration lawyers say the Trump administration has used third-country deportations as a legal workaround to indirectly force asylum seekers back toward the countries they fled, since migrants are often sent to nations they have never visited or where they face safety risks, leaving them with little choice but to eventually return home.