Firm Wins Asylum for Cameroonian Refugee

April 2024 - HHR—in partnership with the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project (DCVLP)—recently won asylum in a Maryland immigration court for a Cameroonian refugee who fled her home country in 2019 after she was falsely accused of being a separatist and imprisoned.

Cameroon's population is largely divided between its French-speaking Francophones and English-speaking Anglophones, with the latter sometimes treated as outsiders in their own country. As an Anglophone, the discrimination the client experienced only worsened during the 2016 Anglophone crisis, in which Anglophones protesting the Cameroon government's treatment of them were shot and killed by police officers.

In 2019, she and her sister were targeted by two Cameroonian police officers in their print shop. They were falsely accused of being separatists, physically attacked and imprisoned for two months. After their release from prison, they made the long journey to the U.S. by foot, bus, boat and plane.

As part of the asylum process, HHR attorneys prepared a legal brief and affidavits, facilitated a psychological evaluation of the client, and prepared her for cross-examination. On March 28, the court granted the client asylum—agreeing with the government attorney that HHR was thorough in its papers and showed consistency in the client's story from start to finish—and concluding that oral argument wasn't necessary.

The HHR team included Justin Campbell, Tiauna Mathieu and Sahana Thirumazhusai.