"Humanitarian gesture": Liberia welcomes 1,200 US deportees as guests
This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.
- Liberia struck a deal with the US to receive up to 1,200 third-country deportees over the next year, in one of the largest arrangements under the Trump administration
- The first group of 20 deportees, screened by Liberian authorities ahead of arrival, is expected to land on Thursday
- Liberia's Information Minister said the deportees would be treated as guests and could apply for asylum in the country
Liberia has announced it will receive up to 1,200 deportees from the United States over the next 12 months under a bilateral agreement described as one of the most significant third-country deportation arrangements reached under President Donald Trump's administration.
Liberia's Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah disclosed the details to reporters on Tuesday, confirming that the first batch of 20 deportees is scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
The deportees will include nationals from Africa, North America, South America and the Caribbean.
Deportees to Be Received as Guests
Piah emphasised that those arriving would not be treated as detainees.
"Liberia's gesture is entirely humanitarian and in keeping with the country's longstanding traditions," he said.
He added that the government intends to provide transferred persons with the necessary support to seek protection in Liberia and to be safe during their stay.
He confirmed the deportees would be free to leave as they wished and could apply for asylum in the country.
Liberia's Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said authorities had already screened the incoming migrants and described most of them as individuals who had committed immigration violations. Both the Liberian and US governments maintained that the deportees are not facing criminal prosecution under either country's laws.
Piah also said the arrangement was not a transactional deal. He told reporters that Liberia was not demanding compensation from Washington in exchange for accepting the deportees, while acknowledging that the US would provide support to help manage the programme and strengthen Liberia's migration infrastructure.
Liberia's Historical Ties to the US
The Liberian government pointed to its long historical relationship with the United States as context for the agreement.
The country traces its roots to a 19th-century settlement established for free and formerly enslaved Black Americans and has a tradition of providing refuge to people fleeing political and other crises.
Liberia's President Joseph Boakai, who met with Trump at the White House last year as part of a group of five West African leaders, endorsed the arrangement.
The US-Liberia agreement includes a provision that Liberia will not return any transferred person to their home country while a protection claim remains pending, with both governments committing to act in line with their obligations under refugee and anti-torture law.
The Trump administration has defended such third-country deportation deals as legally permissible, noting that federal immigration law allows the removal of migrants to willing third countries. The Supreme Court last year stayed a lower court order that had imposed additional procedural requirements on such removals.
Rights organisations have raised concerns that some migrants are being sent to countries they have never set foot in or where their safety cannot be guaranteed. Other African nations that have accepted third-country deportees under similar arrangements include Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
Reporting originally appeared via TUKO. Read the full source for additional context.