24, October 2020
US: Cameroonian asylum seekers were subject to torture at an ICE detention center in Mississippi 0
If you thought ICE detention centers couldn’t get any worse, think again. In Mississippi, US immigration staff allegedly tortured Cameroonian asylum seekers until they signed their deportation documents. Cameroonians are seeking refuge outside of their country due to Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis, which has been occurring since October of 2016.
According to the Central Africa branch of the International Crisis Group, 20% of the population feel marginalized.
Four years ago, strikes and riots resulted from years of frustration in the country’s Anglophone minority and led to political demands from the population. The government’s approach was deemed not effective and was forced to negotiate trade unions with Anglophones. However, the population was subject to three months without internet, six months of strikes, and one entire school year lost. Today, there is a demand for federalism or secession at a boiling point.
The Instagram account, Justice For Cameroon, details the history of migrant Cameroonians, and why some are fleeing the country and seeking refuge in the United States as a result of the crisis.
On February 5, 2019, The Washington Post also published an investigative video on the crisis in Cameroon.
For the first time since 1996, Cameroon will hold its first regional polls in December. Current President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982.
English-speaking provinces will also take part in the election process, which comes after years of separatists fighting with the government that has cost more than 3,000 lives and uncertain living conditions for many more.
The people who have fled from Cameroon have come in fear of government forces that have enacted countless civilian killings, and are are awaiting asylum hearings in ICE detention centers.
There is where the problems begin for the already threatened people.
Multiple refugees have alleged detainees were threatened with violence, choked, beaten, and pepper-sprayed as a way of forcing them to to request the complete opposite of asylum.
It is reported ICE agents put several of their detainees in handcuffs, and forcibly took their fingerprints to replace their signature for the stipulation order of removal. This meant the asylum seekers were forced to waive their rights for immigration hearings and accept deportation.
Advocates for human rights alongside attorneys reported an acceleration in deportations recently. With the election around the corner, the link between the Trump administration’s immigration policy and quicker rates of deportation is clear.
Freedom for Immigrants Executive Director, Christina Fialho said reports of the abuse began in late September and early October of 2020.
“We began to receive calls on our hotline from Cameroonian and Congolese immigrants detained in ICE prisons across the country. And they were being subjected to threats of deportation, often accompanied by physical abuse,” she said.
Fialho added that ICE thrives in secrecy, and “operates in the shadows.”
On Oct. 13, a plane flew 60 Cameroonians and 28 Congolese asylum seekers out of the country from Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas.
Quietly, ICE used a charter plane with no flight plan. Luckily, it was found and tracked by the immigration rights group Witness at the Border, and they reported a stopover over in Senegal, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo before landing in Kenya, and then arriving back in Texas.
In 2019, the Trump admin cut trade privileges with Cameroon due to the ongoing uprisings in the country.
The deported individuals on the flight testified about the abuse they suffered in detention centers under the Cameroonian military, with some having family murdered.
Under the U.S. immigration court system, run by the Justice Department, Cameroonians are also regularly denied asylum or parole.
A complaint filed in conjunction with FFI and the Southern Poverty Law Center recounts eight different stories with claims of abuse and torture.
One person, who was taken off the Oct.13 flight, codenamed CA, still faces deportation, but was one of the people that shared their accounts.
They claim to have been pepper-sprayed before being dragged on the ground.
“The officers told me to open my eyes. I couldn’t. My legs and hands were handcuffed. They forcefully opened my palm. Some of my fingers were broken. They forced my fingerprint on to the paper,” they said.
Source: Aldianews.com
24, October 2020
French Cameroun: Police Chase, Beat Kamto Supporters 0
Witnesses say Cameroon police have chased and beaten at least 200 opposition supporters outside the home of opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who has been under de facto house arrest for over a month. Anti-riot police were deployed to Kamto’s home this week to contain crowds of supporters demanding he be released. Police blocked Kamto from leaving his house after he organized anti-government protests in September.
An unknown female supporter of opposition leader Maurice Kamto stripped off her clothes in front of his house Thursday and shouted at the large police presence that his month-long detention was illegal.
The woman, in her early 50s, screamed that she would not leave until police allowed Kamto out of his house to speak with her.
She was one of over 200 opposition supporters gathered outside Kamto’s house to mark one month since police surrounded his home, placing him under de facto house arrest.
Kamto supporter Giselle Malongo says she came from the western town of Bafoussam to ask why Kamto has been stopped from leaving his house since September 22.
She told VOA the police violently brutalized and blocked supporters from meeting Kamto, a man she called “their president.” Malongo said armed police seized mobile phones from supporters who tried to take photographs (of the clashes). She said police also prevented them from delivering food donations to Kamto and his family.
A reporter also witnessed police beating and blocking Kamto’s supporters, some of whom were trying to donate food.
Christopher Ndong, secretary general and legal advisor of Kamto’s Cameroon Renaissance Movement party, said police beat 13 supporters so badly that they had to get treated at a hospital.
“Kamto was very furious at this gesture by the military refusing people to come and give him food aid after he had been locked up for a month,” Ndong told VOA. “There were a lot of hot exchanges. We decry the attitude of government and its military operatives. We are saying in fact, this is an infringement to democratic principles and democratic rights.”
Cameroon police gave no official statement on the clashes and would not answer a reporter’s questions.
Authorities have not officially declared Kamto to be under house arrest, but police have not allowed him to leave his home since he organized nationwide anti-government protests in September.
Cameroon Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji said police are watching Kamto because he is being investigated for hostilities against the state.
“I want to sound a stern warning to unscrupulous politicians that they will face the law. It must be clear that the discontinuance of legal proceedings does not imply that the charges have been dropped. Any further act of public disorder will take them back to square one,” Nji said.
The September opposition protests were against Cameroon holding December 6 regional elections.
The opposition says the electoral laws favor long-ruling President Paul Biya and his Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party.
Biya has been in power for 38 years, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Kamto and about 200 supporters were jailed last year for protesting against the 2018 presidential election results, which named Biya the winner.
Kamto was released after nine months following international pressure.
Since then, Cameroon police have closely monitored his activities and all of his political rallies and protests have been declared illegal.
Source: VOA