Returnees Abused in Both Countries; U.S. Breached Asylum Confidentiality

July 18, 2024, Washington, D.C. – The United States government has, since May 2024, approved the return of 27 Cameroonian asylum seekers who experienced serious harm in Cameroon after their deportation from the U.S. in 2020, a coalition of human rights groups said today. While the returns were permitted on humanitarian grounds, in part based on U.S. asylum confidentiality violations that contributed to their harm in Cameroon, the asylum seekers had also experienced abuses in U.S. immigration detention, including the use of excessive force, painful full-body restraints, solitary confinement, racial discrimination, and medical neglect.

In October and November 2020, amid reports of the mistreatment of Cameroonian asylum seekers in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, the Trump administration deported dozens back to Cameroon, despite the ongoing risks of danger there and the objections of advocates and members of Congress. Prior to the Cameroonians’ deportations, ICE officials prevented many from accessing their luggage, which held sensitive asylum documents, leading to their discovery by Cameroonian authorities. 

A 2022 Human Rights Watch report documented that deported Cameroonians experienced abuses by Cameroonian authorities, including rape, torture and other physical abuse, arbitrary detention, extortion, unfair prosecutions, restrictions on freedom of movement, and the targeting of relatives.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) granted the 27 Cameroonians humanitarian parole, a mechanism that allows people to enter the U.S. temporarily on humanitarian grounds. Their applications – submitted on their behalf by immigrant rights and legal groups – note that in denying them the ability to remove the documents from their bags, ICE officials violated U.S. federal regulation 8 C.F.R. § 208.6 on asylum confidentiality. They are now permitted to remain in the United States for one year. During this time, they may reapply for asylum. 

“When I fled my country and made my way to the U.S. border, I thought that America would be a safe haven,” said one of the returned Cameroonian asylum seekers. “But with all the suffering I went through during immigration detention and deportation, I felt betrayed and shocked. Sending us back to Cameroon with our documents exposed was like putting a target on our backs. Now, for the U.S. to finally right this wrong means there’s still hope. I can dream again.”

Cameroon has faced conflict and violence in several of its regions in recent years, leading to humanitarian crises. Respect for human rights has deteriorated, and the government has increasingly cracked down on opposition and dissent. Violence since late 2016 by government forces and armed separatist groups in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions has caused mass displacement, as have intercommunal violence and ongoing conflict with Boko Haram in the Far North region.

In fiscal year 2020, though conditions in Cameroon had not improved, U.S. immigration courts granted asylum or other protection to 24 percent fewer Cameroonians than in 2019 – a much larger decrease than the decline for asylum seekers overall. Human Rights Watch documented that due process concerns, fact-finding inaccuracies, and other issues contributed to unfair asylum denials to many of the Cameroonians deported in 2020, despite their credible claims. 

Meanwhile, Cameroonians in ICE detention faced mistreatment that stood out even among all the anti-immigrant actions of the Trump administration. In August 2020, Cameroonians in Louisiana waged a hunger strike to protest their prolonged ICE detention. Guards responded by dousing them with pepper spray, beating them, and putting them in solitary confinement. 

Deportations of Cameroonians surged in late 2020 ahead of the change in U.S. presidential administrations. By returning them to face harm, the Trump administration violated the principle of nonrefoulement, the cornerstone of international refugee law, and it compounded the violation by breaching their confidentiality. 

“The 27 Cameroonian asylum seekers who have returned to the U.S. suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of both U.S. and Cameroonian authorities,” said Daniel Tse, founder of the Cameroon Advocacy Network. “The U.S. government took a positive step by approving their returns, but it should not have taken four years to remedy its error. This is no arbitrary reversal of deportations – humanitarian parole is a legal return process under U.S. immigration law, used to help those in danger. Though the returns underscore U.S. commitment to human rights, these Cameroonians’ experiences highlight the urgent need for reforms within the U.S. immigration system and the ongoing need to protect Cameroonians from deportation.”

The 27 people granted humanitarian parole are a small fraction of the Cameroonians in need of protection, according to advocates. In 2022, the Biden administration designated Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which protects Cameroonians in the U.S. from deportation for 18 months; this was later extended until June 2025. However, backlogs in processing applications have prevented thousands of Cameroonians from accessing the protection. The U.S. government should increase resources devoted to addressing application backlogs and continue to redesignate Cameroon for TPS, given the ongoing risks. 

The groups supporting the returned Cameroonians are Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Haitian Bridge Alliance, Human Rights Watch, Cameroon Advocacy Network, Witness at the Border, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Texas A&M School of Law Legal Clinics.