Liberia as a Human Dumping Ground

By 1816, slavery was illegal in America. Though, on the ground, it still existed to varying degrees in various places. (White) America now had a “problem”, write Natalia Cintra and Tosin Durodola. What if the free blacks instigated or inspired slave uprisings? Other whites asked why free blacks should even be in America – if they weren’t slaves, they didn’t serve any purpose…

 

Their “solution”?

“Literally deport free black Americans and freed slaves to a settlement they hoped to create in the African motherland.”

That then is the origin story for Liberia, a country on the Atlantic coast of Africa, a country/colony where “race, racism, and anti-black slavery meet yet another type of forced movement: deportation”. By 1819, this was institutionalized to the point that America was deporting the people found in illegal slave ships to Liberia, regardless of their origin.

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Now you could say that was all horrifying, no doubt, but it was so long back. Why rake it up now? To answer that, we need to look at America’s current policy of deporting a different set of “undesirables” in the current era – non-white immigrants. That includes undocumented labourers and asylum seekers. The US is returning more and more of these groups to their native countries.

 

One can (rightly) argue that the US (or any country) does have that right – they don’t have to keep non-citizens. Even if they looked the other way over such groups when it suited them, they don’t have to do it indefinitely.

 

True. But now consider the groups whom US judges have ruled should not be returned to their native countries because they may be killed or persecuted or face inhuman treatment if they returned home. For these groups, Liberia has become the place where the US government is deporting them to.

 

Most such deportees to Liberia find themselves in a strange land, not knowing the culture, having no ties. They can apply for asylum, but until that is accepted, they cannot work. Until then, they are housed in setups that live off what the US government and charity organizations can give… How long that can be sustained is unknown. What happens after that, again unknown.

 

What happens to deportees to whom Liberia won’t give asylum? Well, they will be deported elsewhere. Where exactly? Yet another unknown.

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Liberia itself is a poor country, so they can’t do much for these deportees. They have a small population, and absorbing such deportees may be disruptive. Why then did they agree to this?

 

Two reasons. One, the US gives Liberia an annual amount to deal with these deportees and issues visas for Liberians more easily. Two, US aid to Liberia is now tied to this policy.

 

How much of the US money is siphoned off by corruption is of no concern to the US. Not being a well-functioning democracy, such decisions were never discussed and approved by Liberia’s Parliament either. Could that then translate into anger and violence against such deportees? Well, nobody seems to care.

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While sad, whom should one blame? The illegal immigrants driven by desperation? The recipient country, just because they are rich(er)? The countries that now accept such deportees as a source of money? This is like a Vikram-vetaal story, except with no answer.

 

Then again, one also knows that this was (and will never be) done to whites coming to America. Latin Americans, yes, but not whites (Europeans). Remember, this was never done to communist refugees in the Cold War era. So there is definitely a race angle to this, as was the case in the ending-of-slavery era.