‘Not a small issue’: People deported by US to Liberia face uncertain future

Monrovia, Liberia – Samwar Fallah began receiving calls this week from people in the United States seeking information about 20 relatives sent to Liberia, a country none of them is a citizen of.The families asked the Monrovia-based lawyer to find out where their relatives were taken and what would happen to them. He could not tell them much.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4First group of US deportees, out of an expected 1,200, arrive in Liberialist 2 of 4Liberia to take 1,200 deportees from the USlist 3 of 4Liberia’s kush crisis: The hidden trade behind a generation at risklist 4 of 4From palava huts to TikTok: How Liberians are preserving their pastend of listHe knows the group landed at Roberts International Airport near capital Monrovia on Thursday and was driven away in a bus by Liberian officials. He does not know where they were taken, whether they are free to leave, or what legal status they now hold.Fallah avoids calling them deportees because the government has not defined their status under Liberian law.“You cannot relocate a citizen from one country to another without clear information as to why that person has been relocated,” Fallah told Al Jazeera. “Imagi...