US Sends First 20 Deportees to African Country Under New Deal
- Twenty deportees landed at Roberts International Airport near Monrovia on Thursday as the first batch under a new US-Liberia deportation deal
- Liberia's justice minister confirmed that most of those deported committed migration-related violations but can apply for asylum in the country
- The bilateral agreement covers up to 1,200 migrants from Africa, North America, South America and the Caribbean
- A US-based immigration lawyer, Akua Poku, has shared her expert views on the deportation of immigrants
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The United States has begun deportation flights to Liberia under a newly established bilateral agreement, with the first group of 20 individuals arriving at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia on Thursday.
The arrangement allows Washington to transfer migrants to the West African nation, with the total number expected to reach 1,200 under the terms of the deal.
Source: Getty Images
It ranks among the largest third-country deportation agreements the Trump administration has concluded as part of its sweeping immigration enforcement campaign.
Liberia outlines terms for deportees
Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh, speaking at a briefing on Tuesday ahead of the first arrivals, said the majority of those being sent to Liberia had committed migration-related violations rather than serious criminal offences.
She confirmed that deportees would have the option to apply for asylum within the country.
Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah clarified that the expected 1,200 deportees would not be drawn exclusively from African nations.
According to a report by AP, the group will also include nationals from North America, South America and the Caribbean.
Lawyers raise concerns over legal safeguards
The US-Liberia deal forms part of a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has negotiated deportation arrangements, many of them confidential, with close to two dozen countries willing to accept migrants who are not their own nationals. Approximately ten of those agreements involve African states, according to immigration advocates.
Immigration lawyers have raised serious concerns about the practice, arguing that third-country deportations function as a legal mechanism to redirect asylum-seekers away from due process and back towards the countries they originally fled.
In a number of documented cases, migrants have been transferred to nations they have no connection to, or where they face security risks, leaving them with little realistic alternative but to return to the very places they were escaping.
Critics of the policy argue that such arrangements undermine international refugee protections by circumventing the formal asylum process that migrants would otherwise be entitled to pursue on US soil.
Seek a stay of removal
A US-based immigration lawyer, Akua Poku, in a comment to YEN.com.gh, advised immigrants with a deportation order to seek a stay of removal while pursuing their immigration cases.
“A person with a prior order of deportation or removal can seek a discretionary stay of removal from DHS at any time while pursuing other immigration relief in court, with the BIA or with USCIS.”
US orders Ethiopians with TPS to leave
Earlier, YEN.com.gh reported that the US had issued a stark warning to holders of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Ethiopia.
DHS General Counsel James Percival announced on August 18, 2026, that Judge Brian Murphy had lifted the stay on the termination of Ethiopia's TPS.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
