Liberia will accept up to 1,200 migrants deported by the United States from third countries under an agreement described by the West African government as one of the most comprehensive of its kind.
Liberia’s Information Minister, Jerolinmek Piah, said the agreement had been reached between the two governments and that the migrants would arrive in Liberia over the course of a year. The first group, consisting of 20 people, is expected to arrive on Thursday.
The migrants will include people from Africa, South America and the Caribbean. US immigration judges had previously determined that the individuals faced the risk of torture or other mistreatment in their home countries. The US State Department has not provided details about their nationalities.
The arrangement places Liberia in a growing network of countries accepting people deported by the United States despite the fact that they are not citizens of those countries. For Liberia, the government has sought to frame the agreement not as a conventional deportation arrangement but as a humanitarian role connected to the country’s own history.
The Liberian government said there would be no direct compensation for accepting the migrants and that it was not seeking financial payment from Washington. Liberia will, however, receive assistance with managing the programme and strengthening its own migration system.
Officials also pointed to Liberia’s history as a refuge for freed slaves from the United States. Under the agreement, the migrants will be regarded as guests, the government said. They will be able to leave Liberia at any time or apply for asylum there.
The arrangement comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump has pursued agreements with several African countries to accept migrants deported from the United States. Since Trump took office in January 2025, similar agreements have been reached with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
Liberian President Joseph Boakai met Trump at the White House last year, when Trump urged several West African leaders to accept migrants. The latest agreement represents a further expansion of that approach, with Liberia now preparing to receive people whose removal to their countries of origin has been judged unsafe by US immigration judges.
The policy has attracted broader concern from human rights activists. According to activists, thousands of people have already been deported to more than 20 countries that are not their countries of origin.
For Liberia, the agreement raises a complex question of how a country with a history of receiving people seeking refuge will manage a new group arriving not directly from their homelands but following US deportation proceedings. The government’s pledge to treat them as guests and allow them to seek asylum provides the framework for their stay, while the arrival of the first group will put the new arrangement into practice.
