Four journalists investigating a secretive Trump administration effort to deport migrants to the African nation of Cameroon were detained on Tuesday, according to two of the people detained.
The journalists, along with a lawyer representing most of 15 detained migrants, were seized by the police at a state-run compound in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, where they were interviewing the deportees.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that the compound was a detention center for African migrants who were recently deported from the United States by the Department of Homeland Security.
None of the deportees are Cameroonian citizens. And almost all had received protection from American courts, which banned the government from sending them back to their home countries, where they would most likely face persecution, according to government documents obtained by The Times and interviews with their lawyers.
The five people detained on Tuesday were taken to the judicial police headquarters, where the journalists were separated and interrogated, according to Joseph Awah Fru, the lawyer supporting the deportees, and Randy Joe Sa’ah, a freelance journalist who regularly works for the BBC and was one of the detainees.
The three other journalists — a reporter, a photojournalist and a videographer — were based in Cameroon and working on assignment for The Associated Press. The A.P. said that, according to its understanding, the reporter was slapped but “did not sustain serious injury.”
Some of the journalists, Mr. Fru and Mr. Sa’ah said, were kept in a cell for hours. The two men said the A.P. reporter appeared to have been beaten up and had told them the police had attacked him.
All of the five were later freed. Before the journalists were released, the police confiscated their phones, cameras and laptops, saying the journalists had captured sensitive government information, according to Mr. Fru and Mr. Sa’ah. It was unclear if any had been charged.
The Trump administration has not publicly announced any deal with Cameroon to accept foreign deportees. The State Department said on Friday it would not comment on its “diplomatic communications with other governments” when asked about the terms of an agreement. The expulsions have raised concerns about human rights and the secrecy of President Trump’s approach to global deportations.
Several of the migrants in the detention center who arrived there in January said they had felt pressured by the local authorities to return to their home countries or face indefinite detention in Cameroon, according to four people on the flight interviewed by The Times.
“The state cannot prevent the public from knowing where they are keeping deportees who are not even citizens,” said Mr. Fru, the lawyer supporting the deportees. “That goes to the whole idea of shady deals in the dark.”
Posted by John3262005
2 Comments
At least, the journalists were freed afterwards, though not without some injuries and their personal properties taken because of “sensitive government information”.
Apparently, making sure that the deportees are treated fairly and finding out is a national security risk.
Probably something that the Trump administration would say or have said before about the other locations
For that extra kick. We’re probably paying ludicrous amounts of money for them. I forget what the UK spent per person sending people to Africa (a headline says about 2 million USD) but I’m sure we’ll by paying out the ass too. How much will this cost per person deported?
I’m guessing either $3.5 million per person, including other costs like flying them to Africa.