In view of the current humanitarian crises and violent conflicts in Cameroon, Washington Center for Human Rights encourages President Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to grant Cameroon Temporary Protected Status (TPS). If compelled to return to their home country, an estimated 40,000 Cameroonians living in the United States face horrific violence, displacement, and death. Washington Center for Human Rights joins members of Congress in urging DHS to designate Cameroon for TPS as soon as possible.
Since 2016, five continuous violent conflicts in Cameroon have displaced over 1.8 million people in Anglophone, Cameroon and resulted in over 4,000 civilian deaths. Today, an estimated 2.3 million Cameroonians experience acute food insecurity as a result of continued conflict and shortages, and the number of Cameroonians in need of urgent humanitarian aid has risen to 4.4 million as of December 2021.
Cameroon is unlikely to stabilize in the foreseeable future, with ethnic tensions rising across the country. Following elections in 2018 and 2020, violent uprisings and state-sponsored violence erupted, and human rights violations by both government security forces and armed separatists have persisted until 2021. Boko Haram terrorizes civilians and recruits young soldiers to carry out suicide attacks in refugee camps, mosques, and schools in northern Cameroon. In retaliation, Cameroonian security forces and government officials have tortured and disappeared civilian captives with impunity on several occasions. In the previous two years, the US State Department has documented several incidents of extrajudicial executions, disappearances, arbitrary imprisonment, and other politically motivated crimes against civilians around the country. Women, children, LGBTQ+ people, and other vulnerable groups are especially vulnerable to violent violence.
In addition to violent wars, Cameroon’s living circumstances have deteriorated as a result of regional political instability, harsh weather, and the COVID-19 epidemic. More than 350,000 refugees from the Central African Republic have sought asylum in eastern Cameroon as a result of the country’s civil conflict, exacerbating the region’s already dire food and water shortages. Heavy rains, along with COVID-19 limitations, have undermined infrastructure and continue to impede the transfer of life-saving medical and humanitarian supplies across the nation. The Cameroonian government is using the epidemic as an excuse to charge demonstrators gathered to oppose the repressive rule with “terrorism and insurrection,” and it is repressing nonviolent political dissent even as the country’s conditions deteriorate.
TPS would ensure that Cameroonians living in the US are not deported to persecution in violation of US law and enforceable treaty obligations while these horrific wars continue. Refugee and asylum provisions in the United States are insufficient to ensure the safety of Cameroonians currently in the country. Despite persistent persecution in Cameroon, the number of Cameroonians granted refuge fell by 32% between 2019 and 2020. Due to the high possibility that deported persons would be killed by their government upon return, ICE deported more than 90 Cameroonians in late 2020 aboard what supporters refer to as “death aircraft.” According to a Human Rights Watch study from February 2022, “Cameroonians denied asylum and deported by the United States between 2019 and 2021 have endured persecution and other significant human rights abuses in Cameroon post-return.” More than 3,100 Cameroonians – the great majority of whom were asylum applicants – were awaiting U.S. immigration court hearings as of January 2022.
Cameroonians, like other Black and African immigrant populations, are disproportionately detained during immigration processes. The percentage of Cameroonian asylum applicants detained in immigration detention centers for some or all of their immigration court procedures increased from 7% in FY 2010 to 97 percent in FY 2020. Cameroonian asylum seekers have been subjected to abuses like as sexual violence, medical negligence, and the illegal use of retaliatory solitary confinement, as well as forced sterilization and non-consensual OB/GYN surgeries while in jail.
Cameroonians have shown incredible tenacity in their search for safety and are valued members of communities across the United States. To guarantee that tens of thousands of Cameroonians residing in the US are not forced to return to life-threatening conditions in Cameroon, the Biden administration must designate Cameroon for TPS as soon as possible.