“How Can You Throw Us Back?” – HRW report

The hand of a man deported from the United States, covered in insect bites, rests on the bars of a jail in Cameroon, November 2020.

After the United States rejected her asylum claim and deported her in October 2020, Esther,[1] a Cameroonian woman, found herself trapped in a nightmare in the country she had previously fled. “I was arrested and detained [by gendarmes]... I was raped. I was well [seriously] beaten, I was tortured, I lived mostly on bread,” she said. “They said we are the people that have gone out and spoiled the name of the country… so I have to pay for it dearly.”

Like Esther, many other Cameroonians denied asylum and deported by the United States between 2019 and 2021 have suffered persecution and other serious human rights violations in Cameroon post-return. This report traces what happened to several dozen of them, both during their time in the US and after deportation. It focuses in particular on the estimated 80 to 90 Cameroonians deported on two flights in October and November 2020.

Human Rights Watch research shows that US authorities not only sent Cameroonians back to harm, but also subjected them to serious human rights violations in US immigration detention, failed to fairly adjudicate many of their cases, and failed to protect confidential asylum documents, which were confiscated by their government. For these reasons, US deportations of Cameroonian asylum seekers violated US obligations under international human rights and refugee law.

The 2017 to 2021 administration of US President Donald Trump coincided with deteriorating respect for human rights and mass displacement in Cameroon. In the country’s two Anglophone regions, violent confrontations between government forces and armed separatist groups led to a major humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, conflict with the armed Islamist group Boko Haram continued in Cameroon’s Far North region, and the government increasingly cracked down on political opposition and dissent. Though most Cameroonian refugees have fled to neighboring countries – including more than 72,000 from the Anglophone regions to Nigeria – several thousand flew to South America and journeyed overland to the US southern border to request asylum. These arrivals increased each year from 2016 until March 2020, when the US barred nearly all asylum seekers from entry under a discriminatory border expulsion policy, citing Covid-19 as pretext.

Deported Cameroonians told Human Rights Watch they had looked to the US for protection for several reasons: fears of extradition from African countries, notably Nigeria; family and community ties in the US; the language (many who fled are English speakers); and a belief in a “high standard of human rights” in the US, as one man, Carl, put it. Another, Ousmanou, said during his immigration court hearing, “I decided to run to the United States because I know they respect human rights and they protect migrants.”

This hopeful belief soon shattered for scores of Cameroonians who spent months or years in abusive US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, only to be deported. “The human rights in America that I always looked up to, now I don’t believe these human rights exist, because of the way that we’ve been treated and sent back to our country, where we are going through pain,” said Esther.

Though conditions in Cameroon had not improved, the US immigration court grant rate for asylum or other relief to Cameroonians dropped by approximately 24 percent from fiscal year 2019 to 2020 – a substantial difference from the 6 percent drop in the overall rate. In late 2020, deportations surged.

Human Rights Watch identified at least 190 Cameroonian deportations in 2019 and 2020, of which approximately half were conducted in October and November 2020 alone. Nearly everyone on the October and November flights had sought and was denied asylum. The flights went ahead despite the Covid-19 pandemic, allegations of ICE abuses, and the protests of scores of activists, lawyers, and US Congress members. This continued until Trump’s last days in office, with ICE deporting at least one Cameroonian in January 2021. After a hiatus during most of 2021, the administration of President Joe Biden deported several people to Cameroon in October 2021.

During the research for this report between December 2020 and January 2022, Human Rights Watch interviewed 41 Cameroonian asylum seekers – mostly Anglophones – deported from the US between 2019 and January 2021, all but two of whom were returned in October and November 2020. We also interviewed 58 other people in the US and Cameroon, including deportees’ relatives, lawyers, immigrant rights advocates, experts, and others; collected photos, videos, recordings, and medical and legal documents corroborating deported peoples’ accounts; and analyzed the US asylum documents of over two dozen deported people.

Post-Return Harm in Cameroon

Human Rights Watch found that Cameroonian authorities have, between 2019 and 2021, subjected returned deportees and members of their families to serious human rights violations including rape, torture and other physical abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention, extortion, and threats. Perpetrators included police, gendarmes, and military personnel, among other officials and state agents. Armed separatists also beat at least one deported person and threatened the relatives of others.

Our research indicates government forces detained or imprisoned at least 39 deported people after return. This includes 19 people we interviewed who were detained in jails, prisons, military camps, or other detention facilities, both legal and illegal, for periods ranging from days to months. One man was detained twice. Many were held without due process or incommunicado, in some cases in circumstances that may constitute enforced disappearances. Nearly all described squalid detention conditions with little to no food, medical care, sanitation, or protection from Covid-19. Credible sources indicated authorities detained at least 20 other deported people as well, while additional unconfirmed reports suggest the total may be higher.

Human Rights Watch documented 13 cases of torture, physical or sexual abuse, or assault of deported people by state agents in detention, during or prior to arrests, or at their residences. Three women alleged that members of the security forces raped them, one after arrest and two in detention. Government forces punched, kicked, and beat men and women with batons, belts, machetes, guns, and whips. “They said, ‘...You left and thought we wouldn’t get you... You will die in this jail,’” said Richard, imprisoned for a month post-deportation. “They took off my [clothes], so I was naked, and they beat me...for 14 days, every day... They were making me feel that’s the end of my life.”

Government forces targeted many returnees – mostly Anglophones, some Francophones – because of their deportation and their actual or imputed opposition to the government. Deported people described how authorities interrogated and threatened them, accusing them of “speaking ill” or “blackening the name” of the country by seeking asylum, of “destabilizing” and wanting to divide Cameroon, or of raising money for separatists. We also documented persecution against deported people for the same individual reasons they originally fled Cameroon. Others said authorities arbitrarily targeted them for being Anglophone, but treated them worse if they learned they had been deported.

Authorities also targeted the families of deported people. In seven cases we documented, state agents beat, abducted, detained, harassed, and in one case reportedly killed, relatives in connection with deportees’ returns. In the North-West region, allegedly while searching for Esther, soldiers opened fire and killed her 35-year-old sister. In the South-West region, while searching for George, five soldiers attacked his 60-year-old mother. “Since they could not find me, they...beat her up,” George said. “They beat her with a military belt...and they threatened her with guns... She fell down crying, so then they kicked her with their military shoes, and they were hitting her with sticks... They broke her bones.”

The government also confiscated deported peoples’ national identity cards – required under Cameroonian law to be carried at all times – which prevented them from freely moving or working, trapped them in extreme hardship, and exposed them to additional risks. “We’re living in a perpetual state of fear,” said Etienne, months after his 2020 deportation.

Several deported people faced trumped-up criminal charges, in at least one case directly linked to having sought asylum in the United States. This, along with other deportees’ accounts illustrating that the act of seeking asylum itself or being deported from the United States triggered persecution upon return, establishes a basis for sur place asylum claims (based on conditions arising after a person has left their country) for Cameroonians in the United States.

US Abuses and Failures

While Cameroonian authorities and armed separatists bear direct responsibility for abuses against deported people, this report also addresses the US government’s culpability for sending Cameroonians to harm. It documents allegations of ICE refusing to allow people to remove asylum case documents from their luggage prior to deportation, resulting in their de facto transfer to Cameroonian authorities. It also explores due process concerns and other issues that appear to have led to unfair adjudications of multiple Cameroonians’ asylum cases, including communication barriers, alleged asylum officer errors and misconduct, possible factual inaccuracies and lack of impartiality by immigration judges, and limited access to legal counsel and information.

The report further highlights US responsibility for human rights violations against the deportees and other Cameroonians during time in the US. ICE administratively detained nearly all asylum seekers we interviewed in jail-like conditions for prolonged and unnecessary periods, most for one to three years without parole. While in the US, these Cameroonians faced a context of systemic racism in which Black and brown people, who comprise the majority of those ICE detains, are disproportionately affected by harmful immigration detention policies and practices.

Human Rights Watch documented 24 cases of violence, excessive force, and other abuses by ICE, other US government officials, or ICE contractors (detention facility security officers) against 18 Cameroonians who were subsequently deported, including forced fingerprints on documents, pepper spray, painful restraints, and abusive solitary confinement, isolation, or segregation. “One [officer] put his knee on my neck. I told him I could not breathe. He told me he didn’t care,” said Thierry, who was detained for nearly three years before deportation in October 2020.

Eight deported Cameroonians said they fell ill due to Covid-19 in ICE detention facilities, with ICE or ICE contractors failing to take adequate measures to prevent or respond to outbreaks. Twelve people said they suffered medical neglect in ICE detention. Many also described other cruel treatment by ICE. “On the planes we would ask for food, and they wouldn’t give it to us, or even let us go to the bathroom... The treatment they were giving us was just so bad and inhuman,” said Robert.

Urgent Action Needed

In February 2021, at the start of US President Joe Biden’s term, ICE halted a planned deportation flight to Cameroon following an outcry by activists and rights groups. ICE said it “decided to cancel the flight to allow any potential victims or witnesses an opportunity to be interviewed, and will conduct an agency review of recent use-of-force reports related to individuals on this flight, and issue any additional guidance or training as deemed necessary.” This was a positive step. However, deportations to Cameroon resumed in October, and those already deported to Cameroon also deserve support and justice.

Cameroonian authorities and armed separatists should cease all abuses against returnees and their families, including torture, rape, inhuman and degrading treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and other violations, and investigate allegations of such mistreatment.

By returning Cameroonians to face persecution, torture, and other serious harm, the US violated the principle of nonrefoulement, the foundation of international refugee law. Given the documented harm and ongoing risks the deported people face, the US government should urgently offer Cameroonian asylum seekers deported in 2020 and 2021 the opportunity to return via humanitarian parole, the mechanism that allows people to enter the US temporarily on humanitarian grounds. US Citizenship and Immigration Services should permit them to re-apply for asylum through the affirmative process. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security should investigate all alleged misconduct by asylum officers and alleged lack of impartiality by immigration judges, abuses by ICE and ICE contractors, and ICE actions leading to the de facto handover of asylum documents to a country-of-origin government. Deported people should have the opportunity to testify and receive effective remedies for harm suffered in ICE custody.

Our findings also underscore the broader need for reform of the US immigration and asylum systems, including to eliminate unnecessary immigration detention, due process violations, barriers to asylum, poor training and supervision leading to endemic misconduct, and entrenched institutional cultures at DHS and the Department of Justice that appear to tolerate disrespectful and overly adversarial treatment of non-citizens in custody and in immigration proceedings.

Given that people deported to Cameroon may face serious risks to their lives, freedom, and safety upon return, the US and governments worldwide should suspend deportations there. In addition to considering Cameroonian sur place asylum claims, the US government should designate Cameroonians in the United States for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), as, per TPS statutory requirements, “extraordinary and temporary conditions” in Cameroon make safe return impossible.

Ongoing Fear and Hardship, Cumulative Trauma

The cumulative impact on deported people of the abuses experienced in both the US and Cameroon, added to past experiences of violence and persecution, cannot be over-stated. “The trauma is just so deep,” said Anne-Marie Debbané, advocate with the Alliance in Defense of Black Immigrants, a US coalition that fought to stop the deportations to Cameroon. Every deported person Human Rights Watch spoke with expressed continued fear for their lives, health, safety, or freedom. Many remained in hiding even as of late 2021 and early 2022, while others had fled again. Many could not find their families or had to stay away due to the risks. Several were homeless.

Many of the people Human Rights Watch interviewed were still recovering from injuries caused by abuse, or from illnesses due to prolonged detention in horrific conditions, but most could not afford medical treatment. Nearly all were physically, psychologically, or emotionally broken down; some were – in their words – “destroyed.” Mathias, deported in November 2020, said months later: “I’m not doing good. This wound is just too big.” A few deported people said they thought about suicide.

“They destroyed our lives, the US government,” said Job, who was deported to Cameroon in October 2020. “How can you take someone running from war and throw us back where we’re running from?”

In response to letters from Human Rights Watch sent in advance of the publication of this report, two companies contracted by ICE to manage immigration detention centers denied all allegations of mistreatment of Cameroonians, and one company said it was prohibited from addressing specific allegations and cases. The US Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) responded to provide requested information, which we have integrated into this report, and stated: “We take very seriously any allegations of unprofessional behavior, such as those raised in your letter, and we will investigate them and take appropriate action.” At time of writing, neither the Cameroonian government nor the US Department of Homeland Security had provided a written response to our letters.

- Human Rights Watch