Liberia

Detains migrants or asylum seekers?

Yes

Has laws regulating migration-related detention?

Yes

Refugees

1,146

2023

Asylum Applications

627

2023

International Migrants

72,423

2024

Population

5,612,817

2024

Overview

Liberia; Liberia detains migrants and asylum seekers, and has laws regulating migration-related detention. However, there is a lack of transparency concerning Liberia's detention policies and procedures.

Types of facilities used for migration-related detention
Administrative Ad Hoc Criminal Unknown

Liberia: Covid-19 and Detention

After declaring a national emergency in late March 2020, the Liberian government used emergency powers that enable it to require the registration of residents in infected areas, restrict movement within infected areas, and quarantine infected people. The government designated two of the 15 counties in the country as infected and imposed a 21-day lockdown along […]

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Newly Arrived Refugees from Côte d'Ivoire Await Registration in Behwalay Village in Liberia, (UNHCR, Roland Tuley,
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DETENTION STATISTICS

Migration Detainee Entries
Not Available
protprot 2019

DETAINEE DATA

Total Number of Children Placed in Immigration Detention (Year)
Not Available
protprot 2017

DETENTION CAPACITY

ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION

ADDITIONAL ENFORCEMENT DATA

PRISON DATA

Criminal Prison Population (Year)
2,300
protprot 2020
2,700
protprot 2019
2,023
protprot 2016
1,930
protprot 2012
1,601
protprot 2011
1,420
protprot 2009
1,022
protprot 2007
Percentage of Foreign Prisoners (Year)
2%
protprot 2007
Prison Population Rate (per 100,000 of National Population)
44
protprot 2016
46
protprot 2012
39
protprot 2011
36
protprot 2009
29
protprot 2007

POPULATION DATA

Population (Year)
5,612,817
protprot 2024
5,400,000
protprot 2023
5,100,000
protprot 2020
4,503,000
protprot 2015
International Migrants (Year)
72,423
protprot 2024
87,947
protprot 2020
94,448
protprot 2019
113,800
protprot 2015
International Migrants as Percentage of Population (Year)
1.29%
protprot 2024
1.74%
protprot 2020
2.5%
protprot 2015
Refugees (Year)
1,146
protprot 2023
8,169
protprot 2021
8,213
protprot 2020
8,225
protprot 2019
9,122
protprot 2018
11,126
protprot 2017
18,973
protprot 2016
36,505
protprot 2015
38,595
protprot 2014
Ratio of Refugees Per 1000 Inhabitants (Year)
4.11
protprot 2016
8.78
protprot 2014
Asylum Applications (Year)
627
protprot 2023
15
protprot 2019
9
protprot 2016
25
protprot 2014
Refugee Recognition Rate (Year)
90.9
protprot 2014
Stateless Persons (Year)
0
protprot 2022
0
protprot 2016
1
protprot 2015

SOCIO-ECONOMIC DATA & POLLS

Gross Domestic Product per Capita (in USD)
$ 458,000
protprot 2014
Remittances to the Country (in USD)
$ 528,000,000
protprot 2014
Unemployment Rate
%
protprot 2014
Net Official Development Assistance (ODA) (in Millions USD)
744.3
protprot 2014
Human Development Index Ranking (UNDP)
177 (Low)
protprot 2015

LEGAL & REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

Does the Country Detain People for Migration, Asylum, or Citizenship Reasons?

Yes

2022
Does the Country Have Specific Laws that Provide for Migration-Related Detention?

Yes

2023
Legal Tradition(s)

Customary law

2017

Common law

2017

GROUNDS FOR DETENTION

LENGTH OF DETENTION

DETENTION INSTITUTIONS

PROCEDURAL STANDARDS & SAFEGUARDS

COSTS & OUTSOURCING

COVID-19 DATA

TRANSPARENCY

MONITORING

NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING BODIES

NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISMS (OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE)

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGOS)

GOVERNMENTAL MONITORING BODIES

INTERNATIONAL DETENTION MONITORING

INTERNATIONAL TREATIES & TREATY BODIES

International Treaties Ratified
Ratification Year
Observation Date
CRSR, Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
1964
2017
CRSSP, Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
1964
2017
CTOCTP, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
2004
2017
CTOCSP, Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
2004
2017
CRPD, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
2012
2017
CRC, Convention on the Rights of the Child
1993
2017
CAT, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
2004
2017
VCCR, Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
1984
2017
ICERD, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
1976
2017
ICESCR, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
2004
2017
CEDAW, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
1984
2017
ICCPR, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
2004
2017
OPCAT, Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
2004
2004
Ratio of relevant international treaties ratified
Ratio: 13/19
Ratio of Complaints Procedures Accepted
Observation Date
0/7
2017
Relevant Recommendations or Observations Issued by Treaty Bodies
Recommendation Year
Observation Date
Committee on the Rights of the Child § 73. "The Committee recommends that the State party strengthen its assistance to refugee children with particular attention to unaccompanied and separated children seeking asylum, and ensure that a specific mechanism is set up to protect and assist separated and unaccompanied children particularly, in compliance with international refugee and human rights law." 2012
2012

> UN Special Procedures

> UN Universal Periodic Review

Relevant Recommendations or Observations from the UN Universal Periodic Review
Observation Date
No 2015
2017
No 2011
2017
No 2020

> Global Compact for Migration (GCM)

GCM Resolution Endorsement
Observation Date
2018

> Global Compact on Refugees (GCR)

GCR Resolution Endorsement
Observation Date
2018

REGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS

Regional Legal Instruments
Year of Ratification (Treaty) / Transposed (Directive) / Adoption (Regulation)
Observation Date
APRW, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) 2007
2007
2017
ACHPR, African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights 1982
1982
2017

HEALTH CARE PROVISION

HEALTH IMPACTS

COVID-19

Country Updates
After declaring a national emergency in late March 2020, the Liberian government used emergency powers that enable it to require the registration of residents in infected areas, restrict movement within infected areas, and quarantine infected people. The government designated two of the 15 counties in the country as infected and imposed a 21-day lockdown along with the closure of schools, suspension of flights, and limitations to public transport. As of 11 December, Liberia had recorded 1,676 cases of COVID-19 and 83 deaths. At UNHCR’s Executive Committee held in Geneva in October, Liberia reported that it was hosting 8,235 refugees, the vast majority from Côte d’Ivoire. The government reported collaboration with UNHCR in a Joint Taskforce aimed at raising awareness of COVID-19, distributing preventive materials, and providing food items in the refugee concentrated counties of Montserrado, Nimba, Grand Gadeh and River Gee, and Maryland. Political tensions in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire have forced thousands of Ivorian nationals to flee into neighbouring countries (see 4 December Côte d’Ivoire update on this platform), including Liberia. According to UNHCR, by 9 November, more than 7,500 Ivorian nationals had fled to Liberia. More than 60 percent of arrivals are children, some of whom are unaccompanied or have been separated from their parents. UNHCR stated that they were planning to send essential relief items for refugees in Liberia from their stockpiles in Dubai. On 23 November, UNHCR airlifted 95 tonnes of emergency supplies as nearly 15,000 Ivorians are now in Liberia. A UNHCR-chartered flight landed in Monrovia with blankets, jerry cans, kitchen sets, plastic sheets, and solar lamps for refugees. The UNHCR representative in Liberia said: “Every day this past week, hundreds of Ivorian refugees have continued to cross the border. … Most are children, arriving exhausted and malnourished. The needs are mounting, and we are stepping up to meet them.” As regards the country’s prisons, since the start of the pandemic, Prison Fellowship Liberia, an organisation that seeks to provide help and support to prisoners in Liberia, has obtained the provisional release of 300 detainees. The prison administration found on 10 June 2020 that there were 2,300 prisoners compared with 2,700 in December 2019. The GDP has been unable to establish the extent to which detention facilities are used in Liberia as part of immigration enforcement procedures or obtain details on COVID-19 related measures taken to safeguard people in immigration custody.