First 20 U.S. Deportees Arrive in Liberia Under Third-Country Deal Expected to Include Venezuelans and Cubans

Airport staff and officials attend to a plane carrying migrants deported from the US at the Roberts International Airport in Harbel, some 56 km outside of Liberia's capital of Monrovia, on August 20, 2026. Twenty migrants deported from the United States arrived in Liberia on August 20, AFP journalists saw, the first of up to 1,200 foreign nationals the west African country has agreed to accept. Liberia is the latest African country to agree to take in migrants deported under US President Donald Trump's contested immigration crackdown. (Credit: Photo by Matthew Jacobs / AFP via Getty Images)

The first 20 people deported from the United States under a new agreement with Liberia arrived in the West African country on Thursday, beginning a program that could eventually receive as many as 1,200 third-country deportees.

Most people transferred under the agreement are expected to come from Latin America, including Venezuela, Cuba and Colombia, Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah told Reuters.