US President Donald Trump’s administration has deported dozens of people to what are termed “third countries” since coming into power in January 2025.
Several African countries, including Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, have already struck deals to receive those the US cannot legally send back to their home countries.
The US has defended the third-country deals as lawful, despite rights groups criticising the arrangements as opaque and many of the deportees ultimately being repatriated.
Ghana has faced legal suits over accusations that is has forced deportees from the US back to countries they fled, in violation of their rights.
On Tuesday, the Eswatini government said two people who had been deported from the US to the southern African kingdom had voluntarily returned to their home countries: Mauritania and DR Congo.
Eswatini confirmed last year that it had received $5.1m (£3.8m) from the Trump administration amid heavy criticism from rights groups.
Piah said Liberia had “not demanded or received any compensation or promise of rewards in exchange for its consent to participate in the programme”.
He insisted it was “entirely humanitarian”, but added that the West African nation would be getting US support to manage the programme and broadly strengthen the migration system.
The US State Department has not commented on the scheme.
Piah referenced how Liberia had been founded as a nation in the early 19th Century as a settlement for former slaves and freed black people from the US and the Caribbean.
“We have always welcomed people who cannot return to their home of origin, and to reject these third country nationals would be acting against our best interest,” he said.
