Venezuelans and Cubans among deportees to Liberia under Trump deal, official says

MONROVIA, Aug 20 (Reuters) – People deported by the U.S. to Liberia will mostly hail from Latin American countries including Cuba and Venezuela, Liberia’s information minister told Reuters, as authorities prepared to receive the first deportation flight on Thursday.

The West African nation announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the U.S. in the next 12 months, the latest of several deals the Trump administration has implemented on the continent to accelerate removals.

A government statement on Tuesday said the deportees would come from “African and Western Hemisphere ​countries”, without specifying, while the State Department did not provide details on nationalities.

Liberia’s information minister, Jerolinmek Piah, told Reuters that “most of the people are from Latin American countries. Some from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia and others.”

He said the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency would help provide services for them, as has been the case elsewhere in Africa.

FIRST FLIGHT EXPECTED ON THURSDAY

Third-country 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 were ultimately repatriated.

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.

Liberia said the first flight, due to arrive on Thursday, would transport 20 deportees. It has not provided information on their nationalities. 

It said Monrovia was not demanding compensation but that the government would receive “support to help manage the programme and ​strengthen its migration system more broadly.” 

The U.S. this year awarded $5 million to Liberia for “migration management activities.”

(Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Alex Richardson)