Following our recent post on non-refoulment—The Guardian reports the Trump administration will be returning political asylum seekers back to Cameroon on Tuesday, November 17, despite news that recent deportees have disappeared after their return.
According to the paper:
Some of the deportees are activists from the country’s anglophone minority, who face arrest warrants for their political activities from government forces with a well documented record of extrajudicial killings. They and their lawyers refer to Tuesday’s flight as the “death plane”.
Reportedly, 38 men and 10 women will be on Tuesday’s flight. Of them, 37 are Cameroonian, six are Angolan and three are Congolese. According to the asylum seekers’ lawyers, seven have pending motions to reopen appeals, and one has a case pending before the immigration appeals board.
The paper further notes: “Nationwide, 80% of applications from Cameroonians are successful, but certain judges have records of rejecting over 90% Cameroonian asylum cases.”
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, has written to DHS against the return, stating many of the 57 Cameroonians deported on a ICE flight on 13 October “now live in hiding for fear for their lives, or have not been heard of since leaving the US.” You can read Sen. Van Hollen’s letter to DHS below.
