Liberia announced on 18 August 2026 that it will accept up to 1,200 people deported from the United States who are not Liberian nationals — making it one of the most significant third-country deportee arrangements the Trump administration has secured, according to ABC News.
Third-country deportee deals involve a government agreeing to receive migrants removed from the US who are nationals of a different country entirely — not of the host nation. The Trump administration has pursued such agreements aggressively as part of a broader effort to accelerate immigration removals.
Liberia's Information Minister, Jerolinmek Piah, confirmed the deal. The deportees will include nationals from African countries as well as from North America, South America, and the Caribbean, ABC News reported. The first group — 20 people — is expected to arrive in Liberia on Thursday, 20 August 2026, according to Reuters.
The arrangement covers a 12-month period and stems from an exchange of notes between the US and Liberian governments finalised in September 2025.
Once in Liberia, the deportees will be treated as guests of the country, free to leave at any time. They may also apply for asylum under Liberian law, Reuters reported. What happens to those who neither apply for asylum nor choose to leave voluntarily is not known.
The Liberian government has been careful about how it frames the financial dimension of the deal. Officials stated the arrangement does not constitute a quid pro quo and that Liberia is not demanding compensation. At the same time, Reuters reported that Liberia will receive unspecified US support to help manage the programme and strengthen its migration system. The exact nature and value of that support have not been disclosed.
Liberia is not new to this kind of arrangement. In October 2025, it agreed to accept Kilmar Abrego, a Salvadoran national who had been controversially deported from the US, in what became an early test case for third-country removals, according to Reuters. Liberia was also identified in July 2025 as one of five African nations the Trump administration had pressed to accept migrants deported outside their home countries.
The new agreement scales Liberia's role in that system dramatically. Whether other African nations are negotiating comparably large deals at the same time is not known. It is also unclear whether the US Congress or Liberia's legislature formally approved the arrangement, and what long-term infrastructure Liberia has in place to accommodate the incoming numbers.
Comments (0)