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U.S. sends 20 deportees to Liberia under new deal

newsAug 20, 202633137

The United States flew 20 deportees to Liberia on Thursday, landing at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia, as the opening tranche of a new agreement under which Liberia will receive up to 1,200 migrants. Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah said the 1,200 will include African nationals and nationals from North America, South America and the Caribbean. Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh told a briefing that most of the arrivals committed migration-related violations or offenses and that they could seek asylum in Liberia if they wished. AP called the Liberia-U.S. arrangement one of the largest third-country deportation deals driven by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. Immigration lawyers and advocates say the administration has used a series of often-secret third-country agreements to deport thousands of people to countries that are not their own, with about 10 such partner countries in Africa, and that this practice can push asylum-seekers back toward the dangers they fled.

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