Liberia to host up to 1,200 US third-country deportees, minister says

Several African nations have already struck similar US deportation deals

Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 foreigners deported from the United States over the next year, Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah said, describing the arrangement as “entirely humanitarian.”

An initial group of 20 deportees is scheduled to arrive Thursday, Piah said. They would be free to leave when they wished or could apply for asylum, according to Piah. None of the deportees are criminals or facing prosecution in the United States or Liberia, he said. Neither government has disclosed the deportees’ nationalities.

“The government wants to emphasise that those being brought to Liberia are being received as guests,” Piah said, framing the arrangement as “entirely humanitarian” and “in keeping with Liberia’s long-standing tradition of being a country that has provided shelter to all those seeking refuge and protection from persecution, wars and other forms of conflict.”

Piah said Liberia had “not demanded or received any compensation or promise of rewards in exchange for its consent to participate in the programme.” He added that Liberia would receive U.S. support to manage the programme and strengthen its migration system more broadly. The U.S. State Department has not commented on the arrangement.

The deal is one of several the Trump administration has reached with African nations since taking office in January 2025 to receive migrants it cannot legally return to their home countries. Several African countries — Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone — have already struck similar agreements.

Such arrangements have often involved people who are legally protected from returning to their own countries, for reasons such as persecution. It is unclear whether those being sent to Liberia have such protection orders.

Rights groups have criticized third-country deportation deals as opaque, noting that some deportees have ultimately been repatriated. Ghana has faced legal suits over accusations that it has forced deportees from the U.S. back to countries they fled, in violation of their rights.

On Tuesday, the Eswatini government said two people deported from the U.S. to the southern African kingdom had voluntarily returned to their home countries of Mauritania and DR Congo. Eswatini confirmed last year that it had received $5.1 million from the Trump administration, amid heavy criticism from rights groups.

Piah linked Liberia’s participation to the country’s founding as a settlement for freed black people from the United States and the Caribbean in the early 19th century. “We have always welcomed people who cannot return to their home of origin, and to reject these third country nationals would be acting against our best interest,” he said.