Fate of Deportees in Liberia

By ⋅ May 16, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment
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Immigration office in Liberia (Photo: Abdulai Bah)


By Deepa Fernandes

The Obama Administration has deported record numbers of immigrants, some 393,000 in 2009. And Congress has yet to take up immigration reform.

So it appears that the immigration system will remain broken for a while. The impact on the US has been widely documented and debated. There’s been less focus on the impact on those who are deported.

Many deportees in the West African nation of Liberia, for example, are doing jail time, regardless of why they were sent back.

That’s what happened to Moriba Camara.

It’s the day after a big soccer match in Monrovia and at a local video club where many gathered to watch the game; the dusty wooden floor is littered with trash. Camara spends his afternoon sweeping up beer cans and soda bottles.

This is the only work that Moriba Camara can find in Monrovia, and it doesn’t even pay. The video club owner gives Camara a room in return for cleaning.

“Since I was released from the prison in Zwedru up to this present moment my life is just getting tough, tough, every day hard times,” he said.

Criminal

Camara cannot find a paying job because he said people see him as a criminal. After he was kicked out of the US, the Liberian government automatically incarcerated Camara on his return to Monrovia in 2008. And the government made sure to let people know that the deportees might be dangerous.

“I’ve been running after jobs all over but there’s nobody to give me a job because if I go in the community people are pointing at me,” he said. “And saying ‘this is the criminal that was brought from America.’ So people are afraid of me.”

Moriba Camara (photo: Abdulai Bah)

Camara was born and raised in Liberia. But he fled in 2007 after watching his father killed during the country’s civil war. He was imprisoned when he arrived in New Jersey seeking asylum. Camara’s case was eventually heard and denied, and he was deported.

His nightmare began on the flight out of the US where he said Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept him shackled the entire flight.

“They just tied me up with the handcuff, you know, like a kind of a rope that tied me up with my hands by side. And they tied my legs that I don’t move freely.”

When Moriba Camara returned to Liberia, officials sent all the arriving deportees straight to jail in Zwedru, a city more then 300 miles from the capital Monrovia. Eric Mullbah, the director of prisons in the Ministry of Justice, said that when deportees arrive from the US, the presumption is that they are criminals.

Alarming for the Community

“A respected state, like the USA, is telling you that these guys are hard core criminals, that they have been involved in drug trafficking, that they been involved in theft, armed robbery and the like,” Mullbah said. “If you were to hear such, it’s alarming for the community.”

So Mullbah said the government has to hold all deportees until it can determine if they are safe to release.

Moriba Camara said that may be so, but he claimed his imprisonment for an undetermined length of time and without access to a lawyer was excessively harsh.

“The whole day we are locked up, whole night we are locked up. No access to go to recreation, nothing,” he said. “It got me sick, and when I got sick I tried to talk to the prison director to talk to them to take me to the hospital, but they said no, and didn’t take me to the hospital. I got dysentery.”

It took months for the Liberian government to confirm that Camara had not committed any crime in the US, that he’d only been denied asylum.

Electricity is still sporadic in Monrovia, making the use of generators crucial to getting anything done. But with the high price of gas, running a generator is limited to government buildings, some businesses and places like the video club when there’s a big soccer game on. So given these many basic infrastructure challenges for the Sirleaf-Johnson government, dealing with deportees from the US may be a low priority.

Meantime Camara continues looking for work as he struggles to eek out a living.

The Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute provided travel support for this story.

Discussion

9 comments for “Fate of Deportees in Liberia”

  • http://www.facebook.com/jzinnah1 Jacob Zinnah

    its is shameful act for the liberian government to imprison its citizen without knowing the nature of the case, some of these guys served their times. paid the price. let liberty rain in my country, am home.

    • dea stewart

      what’s shameful about this? the part they get deported or the part they thought they was an American? liberty is raining right now in your country.  Talk to your people, they need to learn how to think before they do stuff. tell that to the congress, if someone do time in the u.s,you and every othey person out the think they should not be deported, because they have  paid the price. and they should let liberty rain!

      • Anonymous

        dea stewart , Your arrogance might be only close to your ignorance in comprehending of simple logic. Without trying to school you further, you might want to read over the article again before making such a stupid comment

  • Anonymous

    This is very strange. No other country does this. But I guess in Liberia, nothing really makes any sense. Even if the person deported had  committed a serious crime (Armed robberyy,  drug dealing, gang viloence, etc etc etc) and had served their time in prison in whatever country,  they should not have to spend one day in jail in Liberia. I know several Liberians who were deported, and none had to spend one day in Jail. So for this to happen under the watch of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is very strange indeed. People have left Liberia for economic reason, gone to the US, applied for asylum, got denied, and are facing deportation. I guess they must also spend time in a Liberian prison unlitl Mr. Eric Mulbah say they can be released. Now isn’t he merciful.

    Finally, what Eric Mulbah is saying makes no sense … and this is the person suppose to be holding up the constitution. Maybe it is just a way of trying to extort the people deportees. Besides, if he is concern about people being alarm in the community, then what about thousands of rebel fighters who did things that is still unimaginable today? What about General Butt Naked? What about high ranking government officials who have stolen miliions while thousands have nothing?  I mean, the list can go on and on.

    Just to be clear, I am not defending the people who were deported. As a lawyer, I am just defending the rights of people. And it is important for Liberians to understand that when they defend the rights of people (like deportees being sent to prison just for being deported), they are making their country a much better country. In fact, you show me a country that does something like this to its citizens, and I will show you a country that is probably very corrupt.

    Finally, I doubt very much if President Sirleaf is aware of this practice. And if and when she does become aware of this, she should invistigate the Ministry Of Justice and Eric Mulbah in particular

    • dea stewart

      that’s what it seems like. it not right, but that’s the law. I think it’s the right think to do at this time.with this law it will have liberian thinking before they do stuff. butt naked has nonthing to do with anyone deportion.  it don’t seems right at this time, to many people but it is for the safity of the people. if you care about your country than you will do the right thing to repersent your country. when they are in america they want to act like an american. the law is the law. when the high ranking government get cought, he/she will face jugement. we need to stand together, as liberian,for liberian. we need to stop bad mouthing the goverment and the law. hopefully with this law we will have less deportees.you don’t have to be deported back home to go back home. if things is not going well with you than you need to try to go home. we need to stop trying to live for other people.

  • Anonymous

    This is very strange. No other country does this. But I guess in Liberia, nothing really makes any sense. Even if the person deported had  committed a serious crime (Armed robberyy,  drug dealing, gang viloence, etc etc etc) and had served their time in prison in whatever country,  they should not have to spend one day in jail in Liberia. I know several Liberians who were deported, and none had to spend one day in Jail. So for this to happen under the watch of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is very strange indeed. People have left Liberia for economic reason, gone to the US, applied for asylum, got denied, and are facing deportation. I guess they must also spend time in a Liberian prison unlitl Mr. Eric Mulbah say they can be released. Now isn’t he merciful.

    Finally, what Eric Mulbah is saying makes no sense … and this is the person suppose to be holding up the constitution. Maybe it is just a way of trying to extort the people deportees. Besides, if he is concern about people being alarm in the community, then what about thousands of rebel fighters who did things that is still unimaginable today? What about General Butt Naked? What about high ranking government officials who have stolen miliions while thousands have nothing?  I mean, the list can go on and on.

    Just to be clear, I am not defending the people who were deported. As a lawyer, I am just defending the rights of people. And it is important for Liberians to understand that when they defend the rights of people (like deportees being sent to prison just for being deported), they are making their country a much better country. In fact, you show me a country that does something like this to its citizens, and I will show you a country that is probably very corrupt.

    Finally, I doubt very much if President Sirleaf is aware of this practice. And if and when she does become aware of this, she should invistigate the Ministry Of Justice and Eric Mulbah in particular

  • Anonymous

    No dea Stewart, that is the point … it is not the law. What law did they break in Liberia? However, if you think it is a good idea to have a law that jails deportees, it’s all good. You know dea stewart, why don’t we just cut off the legs and arms of all deportees? In fact, I think that is too merciful. Lets just shoot them in the head. I mean, if we’re goiing to act like total assholes, lets do it right :-) After the deportees have all been executed, then I think the government should start to execute assholes. Don’t you think the country would be nicer without assholes. I just hope you’re not an asshole dea stewart :-) .But I think you are righteous and godfearing … so we will let you be the executioner :-) .

  • Anonymous

    dea stewart , Your arrogance might be only close to your ignorance in comprehending of simple logic. Without trying to school you further, you might want to read over the article again before making such a stupid comment

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BTAYGUC7RNB3MZVPCQQT774QWA greg

    Someone like this poor soul got deported and some bad entity here went further to even wish him dead including the ignorance government of his own country.This is crime against humanity!!! No human is illegal!!!.and all of you walking beast in human flesh will face armagedon like those before you.Mark my word and fuck your racist law.