Liberia ‌has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the U.S. in the next 12 months.

The first group of 20 deportees is expected to arrive on Thursday, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

Since taking office in January last year, President Donald Trump’s administration has struck several deals with African countries on deporting people it cannot legally send to their home countries.

The deportees have in most cases obtained legal protection against repatriation after U.S. immigration judges ruled they risked torture or other abuses in their home countries.

Washington has defended the third-country deals as lawful, although rights groups and advocates say the details are opaque and many deportees are ultimately repatriated.

The Liberian government’s statement said the deportees will include citizens or nationals of African and Western Hemisphere countries who are medically authorised to travel.

No information was immediately available on the deportees’ nationalities. The State Department does not disclose such details.

Other African ‌countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone, have also accepted third-country deportees.

Liberia said recently that the deportees would be received “as guests” who could leave when they wanted and could apply for asylum in Liberia.

The statement said the deal did not involve a quid pro quo where Washington and Monrovia would demand compensation for taking the deportees.

It added, however, that the government would receive support to help manage the programme and strengthen its migration system more broadly. It offered no further details.

The statement also referenced Liberia’s history as a refuge for formerly enslaved people from the U.S. and its long history of accepting people seeking refuge from political and other crises.

President Joseph Boakai was one of five West African leaders who travelled to the White House last year to meet with Mr Trump.

(Reuters/NAN)