Liberia agrees to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from US

Daniel Torok/White House

President Donald Trump greets President Joseph Nyuma Boakai of Liberia in the Oval Office, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, before a multilateral luncheon with African leaders. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Liberia has agreed to receive up to 1,200 people deported from the United States over the next year, in another controversial arrangement between Washington and an African government under President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

The first group of 20 deportees is expected to arrive in Liberia on Thursday, according to Liberian authorities.

The agreement involves third-country nationals — people who are not Liberian citizens but whom the United States cannot readily return to their countries of origin.

Who will be sent to Liberia?

The Liberian government said those arriving will include nationals of countries in Africa and the Western Hemisphere, subject to medical clearance for travel.

Some of the deportees could also seek asylum in Liberia, according to the government.

The arrangement is significant because some people covered by such US deportation agreements have obtained legal protection against removal to their home countries after immigration judges determined that they could face torture, persecution or other serious abuses if returned.

The Trump administration has defended third-country deportations as lawful, while human-rights organisations have raised concerns about the transparency of the agreements and the fate of deportees after they arrive in receiving countries.

Liberia joins growing list of African partners

Liberia is the latest African country to participate in Washington's expanding third-country deportation policy.

Other African governments that have agreed to receive deportees from the United States include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

The Liberian government has previously accepted at least one high-profile third-country deportee on humanitarian grounds.

In October 2025, Liberia agreed to receive Kilmar Abrego Garcia on a temporary humanitarian basis, while explicitly requiring safeguards against his return to any country where he could face persecution, torture or other serious harm.

A delicate arrangement for Monrovia

The new agreement puts Liberia at the centre of an increasingly contentious US immigration strategy that seeks to remove people even when direct deportation to their countries of origin is legally or practically difficult.

Liberian authorities have indicated that the arrangement will involve humanitarian considerations and cooperation with US officials, while the precise long-term status of those arriving could vary.

The first 20 arrivals will therefore provide an early test of how the arrangement works in practice — particularly over where the deportees will live, whether they can seek asylum, how long they can remain and what happens if they eventually choose to leave Liberia.

For Washington, the agreements offer another avenue for carrying out deportations.

For Liberia, they bring a potentially significant humanitarian and diplomatic responsibility as the West African nation becomes one of the countries absorbing the consequences of America's increasingly aggressive immigration policy.