Liberia to receive US deportees mostly from Latin America

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."

-Reuters