People deported by the US to Liberia will mostly hail from Latin American countries including Cuba and Venezuela, Liberia's information minister said on Thursday.
People deported by the US to Liberia will mostly hail from Latin American countries including Cuba and Venezuela, Liberia's information minister told Reuters, as authorities received the first deportation flight on Thursday.
The West African nation announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the US in the next 12 months, the latest of several deals the Trump administration has implemented on the continent to accelerate removals.
A government statement on Tuesday said the deportees would come from "African and Western Hemisphere countries", without specifying, while the State Department did not provide details on nationalities.
Liberia's information minister, Jerolinmek Piah, told Reuters that "most of the people are from Latin American countries. Some from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia and others."
'Guests'
He said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency would help provide services for them, as has been the case elsewhere in Africa.
Though details of the Trump administration's third-country deportation arrangements are not often publicised, Liberia's agreement to accept up to 1,200 deportees makes it one of the largest on the African continent, where the US has also reached deals with Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
Liberia said on Tuesday that the deportees would be received "as guests" who could leave when they wanted and who could apply for asylum in Liberia.
'Refuge for freed slaves'
In an update, the West African nation said the first flight, which arrived on Thursday, would transport 20 deportees. It has not provided information on their nationalities.
The plane arrived in Monrovia at 12:45 local time (12:45 GMT) after taking off from Louisiana and stopping in Dakar, Senegal, according to two Liberian security sources and the ICE Flight Monitor managed by Human Rights First.
In its statement on Tuesday, Liberia described the deportation deal as consistent with its history as a refuge for freed slaves from the US and as a country with "a long history of accepting people seeking refuge from political and other crises."
Liberia said on Tuesday that it was not demanding compensation for taking in deportees but that the government would receive "support to help manage the programme and strengthen its migration system more broadly."
This year, the US gave $5 million to Liberia for "migration management activities."
Mobile gold miners in eastern DRC complicate health workers' efforts to contain Ebola
Mobile gold miners in eastern DRC have complicated Ebola tracing and containment efforts.
Israel finally admits killing five-year-old Hind Rajab after over two years of denial
Israel previously denied involvement in the killings, saying that a preliminary probe found its forces were "not present" at the site.
Six tourists among seven people killed in Kenya helicopter crash
Seven people, including six tourists and a pilot, were killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed at Mount Ololokwe in northern Kenya.
