US, Cameroon ‘violated’ rights of asylum seekers: HRW

Cameroon committed "serious human rights violations" against dozens of its citizens after the US deported them back to the Central African country in breach of international refugee law, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Almost all of those involved were from the English-speaking minority in western Cameroon, where anglophone separatists and government forces have been engaged in a deadly conflict for five years, with the UN and NGOs regularly accusing both sides of atrocities against civilians.

After the United States deported the estimated 80-90 Cameroonians on two flights in October and November 2020, they "faced arbitrary arrest and detention; enforced disappearances; torture, rape, and other violence; extortion; unfair prosecutions," HRW said in a 174-page report.

"Many also reported experiencing excessive force, medical neglect, and other mistreatment in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the US," it added.

"By returning Cameroonians to face persecution, torture, and other serious harm, the US violated the principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international refugee and human rights law."

The deportations were under the administration of former US president Donald Trump, "which was characterised by hardline immigration policies, narrowed access to asylum, and racist, anti-migrant rhetoric," the report said.

It added that while current US President Joe Biden's administration "took the positive step of cancelling a February 2021 deportation flight to Cameroon", it then deported several Cameroonians in October.

HRW added that the Biden administration has also "failed to designate temporary protected status for Cameroon, despite conditions making return unsafe".

When contacted by AFP, Cameroon's government did not immediately respond.

In Washington, a spokesman for ICE said that its agents "may use restraints only in a manner that is safe, secure, and consistent with appropriate ICE-approved and provided training".

Human Rights Watch said it had interviewed 41 deported Cameroonian asylum seekers and 54 other people in both countries, as well as consulting videos, photos, immigration documents and medical records "corroborating accounts of mistreatment in Cameroon".

The report concluded that "the Cameroon and US governments need to remedy these abuses, and US authorities should provide opportunities for wrongly deported Cameroonians to return and reapply for asylum".

Cameroon has been torn by violence since October 2017 when militants declared an independent state in the Northwest region and neighbouring Southwest region, home to most of the anglophone minority in the country, which is 80 percent French-speaking.

According to the International Crisis Group, more than 6,000 people have died and a million more have fled their homes.