MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the United States, authorities in the West African country said Tuesday, in one of the largest such arrangements under the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on immigration.
The deportees will be received within a year, with the first batch of 20 expected on Thursday, Liberia’s Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told reporters. The 1,200 deportees will include Africans as well as nationals from North America, South America and the Caribbean, Piah said.
Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say, with about 10 of them in Africa.
A key issue in the agreements is that they can involve migrants with protection orders from a U.S. immigration judge not to be returned to their home countries because of concerns for their safety. The Liberian minister did not say if the deportees expected in Liberia had such protection orders.
Liberia’s Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said at Tuesday’s briefing that the country has screened the list of migrants ahead of their arrival.
“Most of them are people who had immigration violations and offenses,” he said.
They “may wish to seek asylum” in Liberia after their arrival or “can leave the country whenever they desire,” Piah said.
Piah added that Liberia will receive support from the U.S. to manage the program and strengthen its migration system.
“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.”
Immigration lawyers have said the Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries.
In many cases, migrants are deported to countries they’ve never been to or where they face safety risks and are left with little choice other than to return to the home countries they were fleeing from.
