Liberia has agreed to receive up to 1,200 people deported from the United States over the next year, becoming the latest African country to take part in Washington’s controversial third-country deportation programme.
An initial group of 20 deportees is expected to arrive in Liberia on Thursday, Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah said. The people will reportedly be free to leave if they choose or apply for asylum in Liberia.
Piah said none of those being transferred were criminals or facing prosecution in either the US or Liberia. He described the arrangement as humanitarian and said the deportees were being received as “guests” rather than prisoners or detainees.
The minister said Liberia agreed to the arrangement because of its history of providing refuge to people fleeing persecution, war and other forms of conflict. He also linked the decision to Liberia’s origins as a settlement founded in the early 19th Century for formerly enslaved and freed Black people from the United States and the Caribbean.
The nationalities of the people being sent to Liberia have not been disclosed. It is also unclear whether any of them have legal protection preventing their return to their countries of origin, a situation that has been central to several US third-country deportation arrangements.
Liberia says it has not received or requested financial compensation or other rewards for taking part in the programme. Piah said, however, that the United States would provide support to help Liberia manage the arrangement and strengthen its wider migration system.
The deal comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump expands the use of third-country deportations. Several African nations, including Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, have already reached similar agreements with Washington.
Human rights organisations have criticised the arrangements, arguing that they lack transparency and could put deportees at risk. Ghana, for example, has faced legal challenges over allegations that some people deported there were subsequently sent to countries they had fled, potentially violating their rights.
Eswatini has also faced scrutiny after confirming that it received $5.1 million from the Trump administration and later said two people deported from the US had voluntarily returned to Mauritania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The US State Department has not publicly commented on Liberia’s new agreement.
