By Yusinyu Omer in Yaoundé
The president of the United States Joe Biden, last week granted Cameroonians who cannot return to their country safely a Temporary Protected Status. This will enable them to stay and work in the United States.
Homeland Security Department said Friday that it will temporarily shield people from deportation back to Cameroon due to extreme violence between government forces and armed separatists in the west African nation which has made it unsafe for them to return.
According to the secretary in charge of Homeland Security Mr Alejandro Mayorkas, a rise in attacks in Cameroon by the Islamist group Boko Haram as well violence by armed forces and anglophone separatist fighters led to this move.
This decision which will apply to Cameroonians residing in the United States by April 14 and will last for a period of 18 months could aid about 39,000 Cameroonians according to an estimate by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
The department said “Extreme violence and the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure have led to economic instability, food insecurity and several hundred thousands of displaced Cameroonians without access to schools, medical care and other critical services “.
Cameroon becomes the 14th country eligible for temporary protected status, a program created in 1990 for people from countries stricken by civil strife or natural disasters.
The Biden administration previously created Temporary Protected Status for people from Myanmar, Haiti, Venezuela and Ukraine and it’s the designation of Ukraine which followed Russia’s invasion that fueled calls for Cameroon to get the same treatment.
In the late 2020 and early 2021, Reuters spoke to more than half a dozen Cameroonian asylum seekers deported to Cameroon after losing United States Immigration court cases. They all had similar stories to tell. They recounted how their identity documents were confiscated by the government upon returning to Cameroon and several others were in hiding, fearing retaliation from local authorities.
A February Human Rights Watch report also documented dozens of cases of Cameroonian authorities subjecting asylum seekers deported by the United States to human rights violations such as arbitrary arrest and torture between 2019 and 2021.