Liberia: Arrival of the first 20 migrants deported from the United States

Twenty migrants expelled from the United States arrived Thursday afternoon in Liberia, a West African country that announced this week that it would welcome up to 1,200 people of foreign nationality over a year, AFP journalists observed.

These deportations are taking place as part of President Donald Trump’s unprecedented and controversial program to deport foreign nationals who are in the United States illegally to third countries.

The plane carrying the 20 people landed shortly before 1:00 PM local time (and GMT) at the country's international airport, AFP observed. Soon after, they were transferred to a bus that departed from Roberts Airport, located about 30 kilometers from the capital, Monrovia.

They were taken in charge by employees of the Liberian Repatriation, Resettlement and Reintegration Commission (LRRRC), AFP observed.

Journalists present at the airport were kept at a distance and were unable to speak with these migrants.

Liberia, a poor West African country, is the latest to join the list of African states that have agreed in recent months to take in people deported from the United States, including Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, South Sudan, Cameroon, Eswatini and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

These agreements were often accompanied by American financial or logistical support.

Some countries, such as the DRC, have welcomed migrants from other continents, such as Latin America, onto their territory.

Liberia announced on Tuesday that it would take in up to 1,200 foreign nationals expelled from the United States, stating that the expellees would be "free to leave the country whenever they wish" or to seek asylum.

Since returning to the White House last year, Donald Trump has expanded the number of people who could be deported, targeting in particular those who benefited from legal protections allowing them, under previous administrations, to live and work in the United States due to risks of persecution in their countries of origin.

The US government argues that, although it cannot return these people to their countries of origin, nothing prevents it from sending them to third countries.

According to an AFP investigation, the United States has offered deals worth millions of dollars and brandished the threat of visa restrictions to encourage third countries, particularly in Africa, to accept deported people, whether African or from other continents.

The Liberian government stated in its press release that it had neither requested nor received "any compensation or promise of reward" in exchange.

"Liberia will receive support to help manage this program and strengthen its migration system more generally," under this "entirely humanitarian" partnership, according to the government.

AFP