PALAU

The Trump administration began requesting that the government Palau accept transferred third country nationals, including asylum seekers, beginning in June 2025. Palau’s Congress and Council of Chiefs opposed the agreement through the fall of 2025. But sustained U.S. pressure led the President to knit together authorities for a Memorandum of Understanding announced on Christmas Eve that was framed as beneficial to Palau’s economy because it is tied to 7.5 million dollars that will benefit the  people of Palau (including for health care and pensions) and will serve as  a work program that can fill labor shortages (though few exist on Palau).

In the Memorandum of Understanding, Palau agreed to consider accepting people – both single adults and families – without criminal records (beyond immigration violations), not undergoing  medical treatment, and from nations with diplomatic relations with Palau. The agreement also requires that the United States provide Palau with a list of people it proposes to transfer fourteen days in advance; that the U.S. ensure each prospective transfer has a valid passport; provide Palau with their full immigration history  (i.e., indicating whether they were geanted Withholding of Removal or protection under the Covention against Torture); and conduct a comprehensive health screening for all people transferred. Palau agreed to accept ten transferred people at a time until 75 transferred third country nationals remain in Palau. Those accepted by Palau would be admitted on temporary visas, with adults becoming non-resident workers and placed with employers. The agreement also includes an assurance that Palau would not persecute third country nationals or return them to persecution.  The government set up a commission to review any claims of fear of deportation among those transferred to Palau. 

Palau is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and lacks immigration laws that would provide transferred third country nationals a legal way to stay in the country so the agreement raises concerns of refoulement and labor trafficking. The island nation of about 18,000 people is difficult to travel to, expensive to live in, and also lacks the infrastructure for and the interest in welcoming immigrants; foreign workers from Bangladesh and the Philippines in Palau face discrimination and cannot own property or start a business. (Uighurs that Palau agreed to accept from the United States in 2009 were never able to adjust to life on the island.)

Palau’s agreement to accept third country nationals stems from its dependence on funding from the United States – to the tune of $900 million in aid over the next twenty years– and also for Palauans eligibility to work, live, and study in the United States (through a free association agreement).