Derek Achong

The Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion has giv­en a lawyer rep­re­sent­ing five asy­lum seek­ers from Cameroon an un­der­tak­ing that it will not de­port them, un­til an ap­peal of a de­ci­sion to refuse them en­try in­to the coun­try is heard on Wednes­day. 

At­tor­ney Om Lal­la sig­nalled his in­ten­tion to ap­peal the de­ci­sion in a le­gal let­ter sent to act­ing Chief Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer Char­maine Gand­hi-An­drews on Fri­day. 

In the cor­re­spon­dence, ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia, Lal­la claimed that Bertha Takem Oben Etchi, Humphrey Nche Ngang­for, Bringsluck Fru Nche, Achatie Ma­grate Af­fu­e­la­song and Ve­nes­sa Njeck En­jek were is­sued re­jec­tion or­ders when they ar­rived at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port on a flight from Suri­name on Thurs­day. They have since been de­tained pend­ing de­por­ta­tion.

Lal­la claimed that they sought en­try as asy­lum seek­ers over fears of per­se­cu­tion and pros­e­cu­tion in their coun­try. He re­ferred to the 1951 Unit­ed Na­tions Con­ven­tion Re­lat­ing to the Sta­tus of Refugees, which ad­vis­es against re­turn­ing asy­lum seek­ers who have well-found­ed fears of be­ing per­se­cut­ed based on their race, re­li­gion, na­tion­al­i­ty, or po­lit­i­cal as­so­ci­a­tion. 

“I am in­struct­ed that armed forces in Cameroon have com­mit­ted egre­gious hu­man rights abus­es in­clud­ing mass killings and the dis­place­ment of al­most 2 mil­lion per­sons and ap­prox­i­mate­ly 3.9 mil­lion in need of as­sis­tance,” Lal­la said. 

“The Gov­ern­ment has a record of sub­ject­ing asy­lum seek­ers who have been de­port­ed to se­ri­ous hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions fol­low­ing their re­turn in­clud­ing phys­i­cal abuse, ar­rest, and de­ten­tion,” Lal­la said, as he not­ed that there is cur­rent­ly a civ­il war be­tween the French and Eng­lish fac­tions of the coun­try. 

He re­ferred to di­rect at­tacks his clients faced be­fore re­cent­ly flee­ing the coun­try. He said Etchi, a 30-year-old restau­rant own­er, had been ar­rest­ed nu­mer­ous times, as she was false­ly ac­cused of be­ing in a re­la­tion­ship with ri­val fight­ers. 

“She has been ar­rest­ed count­less times, cru­el­ly tor­tured, de­nied med­ical care, and faced her restau­rant busi­ness be­ing set on fire by armed forces,” Lal­la said. 

He claimed that Ngang­for, a 48-year-old busi­ness­man, and his 23-year-old son Nche, a foot­baller, were de­tained for sev­er­al weeks and were tor­tured, in­clud­ing be­ing forced to wit­ness heinous killings. 

He claimed that Af­fu­e­la­song was de­tained in 2019 when she was preg­nant and her ba­by was born with mal­for­ma­tions as she was de­nied food, wa­ter and med­ical at­ten­tion. He claimed she was forced to aban­don her ba­by when she fled the coun­try. 

In terms of En­jek, Lal­la claimed the 25-year-old was de­tained and bat­tered on four oc­ca­sions over a three-week pe­ri­od be­cause he sought ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion. He al­so claimed he wit­nessed neigh­bours be­ing mur­dered. 

“My clients have all been threat­ened that if they re­turn to Cameroon, they will be tor­tured and killed,” Lal­la said. 

In the let­ter, Lal­la re­quest­ed that Gand­hi-An­drews give an un­der­tak­ing that an ap­peal hear­ing would be con­vened pur­suant to Sec­tion 26 of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act and that they would get ac­cess to him for rep­re­sen­ta­tion. 

He al­so re­quest­ed an un­der­tak­ing that they won’t be de­port­ed pend­ing the out­come of the ap­peal and that they are placed on or­ders of su­per­vi­sion. He said he will be forced to seek le­gal re­course for the group if his re­quests are not ac­ced­ed to ur­gent­ly. 

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands he has not re­ceived a re­sponse.