US Sends First 20 Deportees to Liberia

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the administration has deported thousands of people to two dozen countries that are not their own, according to advocates cited by the AP. An estimated 11 of those deals — nearly half — are with African governments, and the Liberia agreement involves one of the largest numbers of third-country deportations yet.

Other African countries that have received or agreed to receive deportees include South Sudan, Eswatini, Rwanda, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Congo, Uganda, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic. Some, like Ghana and Sierra Leone, are taking people from their own region.

Conditions differ sharply by country. Sierra Leone hired a private contractor, Kenvah Solutions, to provide housing, food and healthcare. In Congo, the International Organization for Migration has offered humanitarian assistance and assisted voluntary return. In Equatorial Guinea, the AP found deportees confined to a hotel owned by the family of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, where migrants said they were barred from leaving and pressured to go home; 25 of at least 32 people held there had been sent back to their home countries by May.

Some deportees have described being shackled or held in full-body restraints called the WRAP on flights that can run more than 16 hours.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has called his country's agreement an "act of goodwill between partners," without financial compensation.

Liberia already hosts 1,167 recognized refugees and 687 asylum seekers from around the world, according to the United Nations refugee agency.