Liberia agrees to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from US

MONROVIA, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the U.S. in the next 12 months, with an initial group of 20 deportees expected to arrive on Thursday, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

Since taking office in January last year, the Trump administration has struck several deals with African countries on deporting people it cannot legally send to their home countries.

The deportees have in most cases obtained legal protection against repatriation after U.S. immigration judges ruled they risked torture or other abuses in their home countries.

Washington has defended the third-country deals as lawful, although rights groups and advocates have said the details are opaque and many of the deportees are ultimately repatriated.

The Liberian government’s statement said the deportees “will include citizens or nationals of African and Western Hemisphere countries who are medically authorized to travel.”

No information was immediately available on the nationalities of the deportees. The State Department said it does not disclose such details. 

LIBERIA SAYS DEAL NOT ‘A QUID PRO QUO’

Other African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone have also accepted third-country deportees.

Liberia said on Tuesday that the deportees would be received “as guests” who could leave when they wanted and who could apply for asylum in Liberia.

The statement said the deal did not involve a quid pro quo with Washington and Monrovia was not demanding compensation for taking the deportees.

It added, however, that the government would receive “support to help manage the program and strengthen its migration system more broadly.” It offered no further details.

The statement also referenced Liberia’s history as a refuge for freed slaves from the U.S. and as a country with “a long history of accepting people seeking refuge from political and other crises.”

President Joseph Boakai was one of five West African leaders who traveled to the White House last year to meet with Trump.

Reuters reported at the time that Trump had urged the leaders to accept third-country deportees.

(Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Additioal reporting and writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Edmund Klamann)