SERAP takes FG, Cameroun to African Commission over return of refugees, others

Falana urges return of naturalised Nigerians, other deportees

A Lagos-based rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has urged the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to end the ongoing human rights violation of naturalised Nigerians, refugees and asylum seekers forcibly returned to their country by the Nigerian authorities.”

It, therefore, urged the Chairperson and Bureau of the Commission “to urgently hold an extra-ordinary session of the African Commission to address the illegal and unfair return of 51 Cameroun refugees, asylum seekers and naturalised Nigerians, and the continuing violation of the rights of the returnees by the government of Cameroun.”
 
The group also urged the Commission to “speak out strongly and condemn the unfair treatment of the refugees, asylum seekers and naturalised Nigerians by the government of Cameroun, and request the government to immediately release them from unlawful detention.”

The letter read in part: “We write this protest letter on behalf of our clients whose names and status are set out in the list of deportees.    “Our clients are not illegal immigrants in Nigeria. Three of them are naturalised Nigerian citizens while others are recognised refugees and political asylum seekers in Nigeria.”