MONROVIA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Liberia is set to receive the first batch of a total of 1,200 third-country nationals to be deported to the West African country by the United States under an agreement between the two countries reached last year.
The first batch of 20 U.S. deportees is expected to arrive in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, on Thursday and will be received by government officials at Roberts International Airport, according to an official statement issued Tuesday.
Under the arrangement, those to be transferred from the United States to Liberia will include citizens of African and Western Hemisphere countries who are medically cleared to travel, some of whom may wish to seek asylum, the statement said.
The arrangement is consistent with Liberia's long history of accepting people seeking refuge from political and other crises, and the gesture is "entirely humanitarian," it said.
"Liberia has not demanded or received any compensation or promise of reward in exchange for its consent to participate in the program," the statement said. "Liberia will receive support to help manage the program and strengthen its migration system more broadly."
While some African countries, including Nigeria, rejected the U.S. government's proposal last year, others, including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia, accepted the third-country deportees.
