GOL urged to prepare for deportees

A Liberian professional, Jonathan A. Adama cautions here that if adequate preparations were not made to receive influx of Liberian deportees from the United States of America in 2019, crimes would increase in the country.

Speaking with reporters in Monrovia, Mr. Adama, who has vast experience in migration and deportation, further cautions that the Weah-led government should provide housing and skills training to reintegrate deportees.

According to him, most Liberian deportees are returning home without any formal skill to sustain themselves. He notes that there are Liberians being deported from the United States on serious crimes, and coming back home without any adequate preparation, and they could engage in similar acts for which they were deported.
Mr. Adama also calls on government to place serious attention on training or rehabilitating deportees, if their previous behaviors must change.

He notes that in other countries, where people are deported, they receive quick impact skills to prepare them to survive or start a new life. However, Mr. Adama wonders what would happen to hundreds of Liberians born in the United States whose guardians could be deported.

He appeals to the United States Government to consider providing quick impact skill training for Liberian deportees to adequately prepare them for future challenges at home, so that they would not rely on handouts to survive.He wants the United States to seek safe homes for Liberian children expected to stay in that country without their parents.

President Donald Trump wants the Deferred Enforced Departure or DED program that allows citizens of Liberia living in the United States to avoid deportation ended by 2019.

According to the Voice of America, the DED program, which was set to expire tomorrow, Saturday, will be extended for a year as part of a “wind-down” effort.
The VOA says started in 1991, in part through a grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), certain Liberian nationals were eligible for DED, which allowed them to flee armed conflict and civil war and live and work in the United States.

The report quotes the Department of Homeland Security as saying approximately 3,600 Liberians were enrolled in a previous TPS program that preceded the DED.

By Emmanuel Mondaye-Editing by Jonathan Browne