Kosovo Agrees To Receive Dozens Of Deportees From Third Countries After Deal With Trump Admin

Kosovo has agreed to receive dozens of U.S. deportees from third countries following an agreement with the Trump administration, CBS News reported on Wednesday.

Concretely, the country will take 50 deportees, the country's embassy in the United States said. "In response to the request from the United States regarding the reception and relocation of third-country nationals, we have expressed our willingness to cooperate with the United States in addressing this matter under established conditions," the body said.

The embassy added that the deportees will be "temporarily relocated" there as officials work on "their safe return to their home country." They will select deportees "from a proposed pool, provided they meet specific criteria related to the rule of law and public order."

The State Department welcomed the decision, saying officials are "grateful to our partner Kosovo for receiving third country nationals removed from the United States and facilitating those aliens' safe return to their home countries."

Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 but is not recognized as independent by the country, is the latest to accept third country deportees as the Trump administration seeks to ramp up immigration enforcement operations. El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama are others that have received deportees.

The central African nation of Rwanda was also discussing potentially accepting third country deportees. In early May, Rwanda's foreign minister, Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe, said on state broadcaster Rwanda TV. that the country's government was in "early stage" talks about receiving third-country deportees from the U.S.

"We are in discussions with the United States," Nduhungirehe said in the interview, which was reported by Reuters. "It has not yet reached a stage where we can say exactly how things will proceed, but the talks are ongoing... still in the early stages."

Rwanda has long positioned itself as a potential partner to Western nations seeking to curb migration, offering to provide asylum to migrants or house them as they await resettlement elsewhere, sometimes in return for payment. But critics say that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is unsafe, citing the country's poor record on human rights, limited resources, and the authorities' previous intimidation and surveillance of migrants and refugees.

Also in May a federal judge warned the Trump administration against deporting third-country migrants to Libya following reports about imminent flights to the war-torn country. The flights did not end up materializing.