Derek Achong

Five asy­lum seek­ers from Cameroon have ob­tained an in­junc­tion block­ing their de­por­ta­tion. 

At­tor­ney Om Lal­la ob­tained the in­junc­tion from High Court Judge Car­ol Gob­in on Tues­day hours be­fore his clients, Bertha Takem Oben Etchi, Achatie Ma­grate Af­fu­e­la­song, Ve­nes­sa Njeck En­jek, Humphrey Nche Ngang­for, and his son Bringsluck Fru Nchewere, were sched­uled to be de­port­ed through mul­ti­ple con­nect­ing flights yes­ter­day. 

Un­der the terms of the in­junc­tion, the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion was barred from seek­ing to de­port the group pend­ing the out­come of a law­suit against the Chief Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer and the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al. 

The group al­so gave an un­der­tak­ing to pay the costs as­so­ci­at­ed with chang­ing their air­line tick­ets in the event that they lose their pro­posed case. 

The group ar­rived in T&T on a flight from Suri­name last No­vem­ber, was de­nied en­try by im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials and or­dered de­tained pend­ing de­por­ta­tion. 

In cor­re­spon­dence sent to Chief Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer Char­maine Gand­hi-An­drews late last year, Lal­la sought en­try for his clients as asy­lum seek­ers due to fears of per­se­cu­tion and pros­e­cu­tion in their coun­try. He re­ferred to di­rect at­tacks they faced be­fore re­cent­ly flee­ing Cameroon. 

Lal­la said Etchi, a 30-year-old restau­rant own­er, had been ar­rest­ed nu­mer­ous times and 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,” he said. 

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

He said 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 said the 25-year-old was de­tained and bat­tered on four oc­ca­sions over a three-week pe­ri­od be­cause she sought to en­rol in ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion. He al­so claimed she wit­nessed her neigh­bours be­ing mur­dered. 

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

Lal­la re­ferred to the 1951 Unit­ed Na­tions Con­ven­tion Re­lat­ing to the Sta­tus of Refugees, which warns 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. 

Af­ter Lal­la threat­ened le­gal ac­tion, the group was trans­ferred to the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre in Aripo while they par­tic­i­pat­ed in a spe­cial im­mi­gra­tion tri­bunal. Al­though the tri­bunal even­tu­al­ly dis­missed their ap­peal, they were still al­lowed to pur­sue their ap­pli­ca­tion to be deemed asy­lum seek­ers with the Unit­ed Na­tions High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees (UN­HCR). 

In cor­re­spon­dence sent to the Di­vi­sion be­fore the in­junc­tion was even­tu­al­ly grant­ed, Lal­la point­ed out that the UNHRC had grant­ed asy­lum ap­proval for Etchi, Af­fu­e­la­song, and En­jek. He al­so stat­ed that Nang­for and his son had a pend­ing in­ter­view with the UN­HCR be­fore it de­cides on their ap­pli­ca­tions. 

Stat­ing that the Di­vi­sion knew about the sta­tus of the fa­ther and son’s ap­pli­ca­tions, Lal­la said: “Rather than al­low­ing due process to take place, my clients were hur­ried­ly tak­en to the air­port with no­ti­fi­ca­tion of de­por­ta­tion.”

High Court Judge Devin­dra Ram­per­sad is ex­pect­ed to re­con­sid­er the in­junc­tion when the case comes up for hear­ing be­fore him lat­er to­day.