Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 people deported from the United States over the next year, marking one of the largest "third-country" deportation deals struck by Washington as part of its ongoing crackdown on illegal migration. The arrangement adds Liberia to a growing list of African nations, including Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, that have agreed to take in people the US cannot legally return to their home countries, prompting criticism from human rights groups over the transparency of such schemes.

Liberian officials say an initial group of 20 deportees is due to arrive on Thursday, and none are facing criminal charges in the US or Liberia. Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah said arrivals would be treated as "guests", free to leave or apply for asylum, and described the deal as purely humanitarian, insisting no payment had been sought or received, unlike Eswatini, which received $5.1m from Washington for a similar arrangement. No details have been given about the deportees' nationalities, and Piah invoked Liberia's founding by freed African-American slaves in the 19th century as grounds for accepting them.