Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country migrants deported from the US under a controversial agreement pushed by the Trump administration as part of its sweeping immigration crackdown.

The transfers will take place over one year, with the first group of 20 due to arrive in the West African country on Thursday, Liberia’s Ministry of Information said in a statement on Tuesday.

The arrangement, concluded through an exchange of diplomatic notes in September 2025, covers medically cleared nationals of “African and Western Hemisphere countries.” Those transferred may apply for asylum in Liberia or leave the country voluntarily, the ministry stated.

It said the deportees “are not criminals” and will be treated as guests rather than prisoners. The government said it would provide protection and support during their stay.

Monrovia insisted that the arrangement “is not a transaction with a quid pro quo” and that Liberia “has not demanded or received any compensation or promise of reward.” However, it said the country “will receive support to help manage the program and strengthen its migration system more broadly,” without disclosing the value or terms of the assistance.

The deal is among the largest reached under US President Donald Trump’s expanding third-country deportation policy. The mechanism allows Washington to remove migrants to states where they hold no citizenship or established ties, including when their home governments refuse to receive them.

A coalition of rights lawyers and advocates, including the Global Strategic Litigation Council, has accused Washington of using third-country transfers to bypass protection orders and expose migrants to persecution or torture. Thousands have reportedly been transferred to nearly two dozen states, including around ten in Africa.

Ghana, Eswatini, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, and the Central African Republic are among the African countries that have accepted third-country deportees.

The arrangements have triggered legal challenges across the continent. In June, rights lawyers sued Ghana at the Economic Community of West African States Community Court of Justice, accusing Accra of facilitating the onward removal of protected migrants to states where they faced abuse.

A US Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority report said Washington had sent more than $32 million to foreign governments in direct connection with third-country deportation deals by the end of January.

Liberia has said its participation is “entirely humanitarian,” pointing to its founding as a refuge for freed slaves from the US and elsewhere, as well as its history of sheltering people fleeing persecution and war.