WASHINGTON, DC – Le 30 juillet 2021, des membres de la Chambre des Représentants américains Zoe Lofgren (CA-19), président du sous-comité de la Chambre sur l’immigration et la citoyenneté, et Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), président du comité judiciaire de la Chambre, ont pris la tête d’une initiative parlementaire au nom des membres du comité judiciaire de la Chambre démocrate afin d’amener l’administration du président Joe Biden à désigner le Cameroun pour le statut de protection temporaire (TPS) dans les plus brefs délais.
« Pour les dizaines de milliers de Camerounais aux États-Unis qui risquent de subir une violence extrême, la mort et le déplacement s’ils sont contraints de retourner dans leur pays d’origine, une action urgente est impérative », ont écrit les législateurs.
Actuellement, les pays désignés TPS comprennent la Birmanie (Myanmar), El Salvador, Haïti, le Honduras, le Népal, le Nicaragua, la Somalie, le Soudan du Sud, le Soudan, la Syrie, le Venezuela et le Yémen.
Dans leur lettre, les membres de la Chambre des représentants font référence à la section 244 (b) (1) (A) de la loi sur l’immigration et la nationalité (INA), qui permet au secrétaire à la Sécurité intérieure de désigner un pays pour le TPS s’il y a un “conflit armé en cours » de telle sorte que le retour de ressortissants dans ce pays « constituerait une grave menace pour leur sécurité personnelle ».
Ils concluent que « le Cameroun, qui est au milieu de multiples conflits armés catastrophiques, est clairement éligible à une désignation TPS conformément à l’INA § 244 (b) (1) (A) ».
Ci-dessous, l’intégralité de la lettre en anglais des députés américains adressée au Secrétaire américain à la Sécurité Intérieure, l’Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas
« The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528
Dear Secretary Mayorkas:
As Members of the House Judiciary Committee, we write to express our deep concern about the devastating humanitarian situation in Cameroon. As a result of ongoing and deadly armed conflicts across the country that have cost thousands of lives and left an estimated 4.4 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, we ask that you take immediate steps to designate Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).[1] For the tens of thousands of Cameroonians in the United States who are at risk of extreme violence, death, and displacement if forced to return to their home country, urgent action is imperative.[2]
TPS is a temporary form of protection created by Congress to provide a haven for foreign nationals in the United States who come from countries that are experiencing certain types of humanitarian crises. Section 244(b)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) permits the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate a country for TPS if there is an “ongoing armed conflict” such that the return of nationals to that country would “pose a serious threat to their personal safety.”[3] Cameroon—which is in the midst of multiple catastrophic armed conflicts—is clearly eligible for a TPS designation pursuant to INA § 244(b)(1)(A).
Since late 2016, conflict between the government and armed separatists have displaced nearly 1 million people in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon,[4] and a recent escalation of these conflicts has increased civilian deaths to 4,000.[5] In the Far North region, Boko Haram continues to terrorize communities that do not share its apocalyptic worldview, including by using child soldiers in suicide bombings of schools, mosques, and refugee camps.[6] Further, the Department of State recently catalogued an extensive record of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, and targeted violence against marginalized populations by Cameroonian authorities in response to the conflicts.[7]
Conditions in Cameroon have been worsened in recent years by other events. Since 2017, approximately 350,000 refugees have entered the eastern part of Cameroon, the majority of which have fled the catastrophic civil war in the Central African Republic[8] Due to this influx of refugees and the ongoing armed conflicts, an estimated 1.1 million Cameroonians faced severe acute food insecurity in 2020.[9] The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the crisis in Cameroon and extreme weather coupled with the violence have degraded infrastructure and delayed the delivery of humanitarian aid and pandemic relief.[10] Thus, it is no surprise that the number of Cameroonians currently in need of humanitarian assistance has increased by 1.7 million since 2015,[11] and that the number of displaced persons living in Cameroon now stands at 1.8 million, a 58% increase since 2018.[12]
An estimated 40,000 Cameroonians living in the United States cannot return home to these devastating conditions and are in desperate need of a lifeline. We strongly urge you to designate Cameroon for TPS as swiftly as possible.
Sincerely,”
Source :
[1] Alessandra Parker, Congress: Addressing the Crisis in Cameroon, Borgen Mag. (Apr. 4, 2021), https://www.borgenmagazine.com/crisis-in-cameroon/.
[2] Backgrounder: Temporary Protected Status for Cameroon 2021, Catholic Legal Immigrant Network (CLINIC), (Jan. 2021), https://cliniclegal.org/resources/humanitarian-relief/temporary-protected-status-and-deferred-enforced-departure-4.
[3] INA § 244(b)(1)(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(1)(a).
[4] Statement on Temporary Protected Status for Cameroon, RFK Human Rights (June 2021), https://rfkhumanrights.org/news/statement-on-temporary-protected-status-for-cameroon.
[5] Jess Craig, Violence in Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis Takes High Civilian Toll, Al Jazeera (Apr. 1, 2021), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/1/violence-in-cameroon-anglophone-crisis-takes-high-civilian-toll.
[6] Statement on Temporary Protected Status for Cameroon, supra note 4.
[7] Cameroon 2020 Human Rights Report, U.S. Dept. of State (Mar. 2021), https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cameroon/.
[8] European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations: Cameroon, European Commission (June 18, 2020), https://ec.europa.eu/echo/printpdf/where/africa/cameroon_en.
[9] Cameroon 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan, United Nations Food and Agriculture Org. (FAO) (Feb. 7, 2020), http://www.fao.org/emergencies/appeals/detail/en/c/1260440/.
[10]Statement on Temporary Protected Status for Cameroon, supra note 4.
[11] As of June 2021, UNOCHA estimated that there were 4.4 million Cameroonians in need of humanitarian assistance, as compared with only 2.7 million in December 2015. See “Cameroon: Humanitarian Dashboard, January to March 2021,” U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Jun. 2021); “Cameroun: Plan de Réponse Humanitaire 2016,” U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Dec. 2015).
[12] Cameroon 2020 Human Rights Report, supra note 7.
