Liberia to take in up to 1,200 US deportees within a year

"Liberia intends to accept up to 1,200 persons to be transferred from the United States of America within a year," the West African country's government said in a statement.

A first group of 20 deportees are due to arrive Thursday, it said, adding that they were "free to depart the country when they so desire" or apply for asylum.

The Trump administration has said it wants to send to Liberia the Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia who became a symbol of mass deportations after he was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador last year, The New York Times reported.

Married to an American, Garcia has since returned to the United States and has taken legal action to be able to remain. The Trump administration is seeking to send Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongly sent back to El Salvador, to Liberia, according to the NY Times.

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Deals and coercion

Elsewhere on the African continent, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea have become key transit points in the US immigration crackdown – despite the fact authorities there quickly send people onwards to their home counties.

Since returning to the White House last year, the Trump administration has signed so-called third country removal agreements with dozens of countries to accept migrants who, under previous administrations, held legal protections allowing them to live and work in the US to avoid, for example, persecution back home.

Washington's position is that while it may not be able to deport such people back to their country of origin, they can be sent to third countries instead.

A report by the US Senate's foreign relations committee in February claimed the Trump administration had "expanded and institutionalised a system in which the United States urges or coerces countries to accept migrants who are not their citizens, often through arrangements that are costly, wasteful and poorly monitored".

According to The New York Times, the administration has offered a range of incentives, including paying for foreign security forces and offering to ease visa restrictions or tariffs,  reported.

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'Entirely humanitarian' arrangement

“Liberia has not demanded or received any compensation or promise of reward in exchange for its consent to participate in the programme,” the government said in its statement.

“Liberia will receive support to help manage the programme and strengthen its migration system more broadly,” as part of what it described as an "entirely humanitarian" partnership.

The US State Department refused to comment on the scheme.

Liberia as a nation was founded in the early 19th century by a society which advocated for the return of former slaves and freeborn African-Americans from the United States.

One of the world's poorest nations, the UN estimates more than half of the country's population of 8.8 million live in "multidimensional poverty".

According to Amnesty Interntional, at least 30 countries have signed removal agreements with the US, including 12 African states. 

(with newswires)