Kosovo to accept some deportees from US

Some people earmarked for deportation from the United States will be sent to Kosovo in southeast Europe.

The landlocked territory of 1.6 million people will accept an initial 50 deportees a year, the Kosovo authorities told the Reuters news agency.

"The government has expressed its readiness to participate, with the opportunity to select individuals from a proposed pool, provided they meet specific criteria related to the rule of law and public order," the Kosovo authorities said in a statement.

Whether or not the decision has got approval of Serbian government remains unknown.

US President Donald Trump has vowed to oversee a record number of deportations of people who entered his country illegally and has been looking for third-party territories to take them off his hands.

Kosovo was one of the first territories to sign up. It has also agreed to accept 300 prisoners from Denmark in a deal that will see it benefit from financial support for a decade, totaling 210 million euros ($242.7 million). And Kosovo has said it is willing to take migrants who arrive illegally in the United Kingdom, in return for financial assistance.

It is not clear whether the US will provide financial support in return for Kosovo's participation.

The Associated Press news agency said Kosovo's acceptance of deportees from the US will be on a temporary basis, "with the aim of facilitating their safe return to their home country".

CBS News noted that the US usually uses such deportation agreements to remove migrants whose home countries will not accept them, suggesting their eventual "safe return to their home country" may be difficult to achieve.

In a statement to CBS News, Kosovo's representative in the US 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 US State Department responded by saying: "We welcome cooperation on this key Trump administration priority… We 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."