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The US government has pushed African countries to accept Venezuelan deportees, including some newly released from prison, Nigeria’s foreign minister has said.
Yusuf Tuggar said the Trump administration had put “considerable pressure” on countries to accept the deportees but warned that it would be “difficult” for Nigeria to accommodate any.
“The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prison,” Tuggar told Nigerian broadcaster Channels TV.
“It would be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria . . . we have enough problems of our own . . . for crying out loud,” he added.
Tuggar did not say on which countries the US had applied pressure but Trump hosted five African leaders at the White House this week.
The White House has been approached for comment.
The leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal met the US president for a televised lunch on Wednesday, which focused on trade and investment opportunities.
At the event, Trump said he also hoped to “make progress on . . . safe, third-country agreements” for deported migrants.
Liberia’s foreign minister on Thursday told the BBC his country had not had any discussions with the US about accepting “deportees or criminals”.
The Trump administration has launched an aggressive crackdown on immigration since returning to office, and has promised to launch the biggest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in US history.
The US Supreme Court last month paved the way for the US government to deport migrants to so-called “third countries” that were willing to accept them, rather than their own.
Venezuela, led by the authoritarian Nicolás Maduro, has a difficult relationship with the US and has in the past refused to accept the forced return of its own citizens.
Migration experts say other countries also sometimes refuse to accept their citizens deported from the US as it may signal subservience to Washington.
This week, eight US deportees arrived in South Sudan, although only one of them is a citizen of the country and the rest are reported to be from Asia and Latin America.
Trump has promised mass deportations while implementing measures including seeking to limit birthright citizenship and declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border.
In March the US government sent hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, whose president Nayib Bukele had agreed to hold them in the country’s prisons.
Since he re-entered the White House in January, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported more than 200,000 people in a nationwide sweep that has triggered huge protests in more than a dozen large US cities.
Additional reporting by Aanu Adeoye in Lagos
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