HARBEL, Liberia (AP) – The United States on Thursday carried out its first deportation under an agreement for Liberia to accept up to 1,200 third country nationals (TCNs), one of the Trump administration's largest efforts yet to deport people to countries other than their own.

The deportees will include nationals from the Caribbean, North America, South America and Africa, according to Liberian Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah. Liberian Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh has said the TCNs could seek asylum in the West African country if they wished.

The first 20 deportees arrived at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia.