A group of 20 deportees sent from the United States landed in Liberia on Thursday, arriving as part of a new agreement under which the African nation will receive 1,200 migrants.
The individuals arrived at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia.
The Liberia-U.S. deal is expected to mark some of the largest third-country deportations resulting from the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
The 1,200 deportees will feature African nationals alongside people from North America, South America, and the Caribbean, according to Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah.
The U.S. State Department declined to answer inquiries concerning the arrangement with Liberia, but stated that carrying out the Trump administration’s immigration policies was a "top priority."
The department said it remained "unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security."
During a Tuesday briefing, Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh stated that most of the deportees had committed migration-related infractions, adding that they could apply for asylum in the West African nation if they chose.
Advocates say the Trump administration has removed thousands of individuals to nearly two dozen foreign nations under a series of frequently secret accords, with around 10 located in Africa.
Immigration attorneys contend that the Trump administration employs removals to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly compel asylum seekers to return to their home countries.
In many instances, migrants are sent to countries where they have never lived or face physical threats, leaving them with few options besides returning to the homelands they fled.
Other countries that have struck deals with the Trump administration for third-country deportations include South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea.
Some of them have received millions of dollars in payments to take deported migrants, according to documents released by the U.S. State Department. Details of some of the other agreements, including the one with Cameroon, have not been released by the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has spent at least $40 million to deport roughly 300 migrants to countries other than their own in Africa, Central America and elsewhere, according to a report compiled by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and released last week.
According to internal administration documents reviewed by the Associated Press, there are 47 third-country agreements at various stages of negotiation.
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