Thirty-six Africans deported from the United States to Cameroon have started legal proceedings in the west African nation seeking to live there legally and avoid repatriation to their home countries, their lawyer said Wednesday.
The deportations took place under a controversial US scheme that sends foreign nationals in an irregular situation in the United States to third countries.
The complaint filed with the administrative court in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde seeks to “suspend the migration agreement” concluded between Cameroon and the United States.
The aim of the expelled migrants is to be able to reside to reside in Cameroon legally and prevent deportation to their country of origin, Fru Awah said in a statement sent to AFP.
“The lawsuit challenges Cameroon’s implementation of an arrangement with the United States under which individuals who were protected by US immigration courts from removal to their countries of origin were transferred to Cameroon.
“It asks the court to suspend any further implementation of the arrangement while its legality is being determined, require the government to clarify the aplicants’ legal status, and prevent their onward removal to countries where they face persecution or torture,” it said.
“Cameroon cannot be used as a transit point… we are asking the court to affirm that no administrative arrangement can override Cameroon’s constitutional, statutory, and international obligations,” Awah said.
Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Angola, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Morocco, these 36 individuals had been protected by the US courts from deportation to their countries of origin.
However they were deported to Cameroon between January and May this year and now risk deportation to their home countries.
Since their arrival in Yaounde, these people, who are living in a centre run by the Cameroonian authorities with the International Organization for Migration have been deprived of identity documents and a clear legal status and are subject to restrictions on movement, Awah said.
Cameroon is among several African countries that have agreed to receive people deported from the United States.
Others include the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, South Sudan, Eswatini, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.
The administration of US President Donald Trump maintains that although it cannot return these individuals to their countries of origin, nothing prevents it from sending them to third countries.
An AFP investigation has shown that the United States has offered agreements worth millions of dollars and brandished the threat of visa restrictions to persuade third countries, particularly in Africa, to accept deported individuals, whether African or from other continents.
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