The United States sent 20 deportees to Liberia, who arrived on Thursday at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia. The Liberia-US agreement is among the largest third-country deportation schemes driven by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

The 1,200 deportees will include African nationals as well as individuals from North America, South America, and the Caribbean, according to Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah.

During a briefing on Tuesday, Liberia's Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh said that the majority of the deportees had committed migration-related violations and offenses, and that they could seek asylum in the West African country if they wished.

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has allegedly deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, with about 10 of them in Africa, advocates say.

Immigration lawyers have claimed that the US regime uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries. In many cases, migrants are deported to countries they have never visited or where they face safety risks, leaving them with little choice but to return to the countries they were fleeing from.

Source: www.theguardian.com