Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the U.S. in the next 12 months.
The first group of 20 deportees is 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 authorised to travel.
No information was immediately available on the nationalities of the deportees. The State Department said it does not disclose such details.
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 recently that the deportees would be received “as guests” who could leave when they wanted and could apply for asylum in Liberia.
The statement said the deal did not involve a quid pro quo with Washington and Monrovia not demanding compensation for taking the deportees.
It added however, that the government would receive support to help manage the programme 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 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.
