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Asylum and Refugee Recognition

CameroonHumanitarian protection

Explore the five recorded questions, answers and sources for this pathway.

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Explore pathways in Cameroon Read the five questions ↓

What exactly is this: asylum, temporary protection, humanitarian admission, resettlement or another protection mechanism?

This is national asylum leading to refugee status under Law No. 2005/006 of 27 July 2005 on the status of refugees in Cameroon. The law defines a refugee by reference to the 1951 Geneva Convention (as amended by the 1967 Protocol) and the 1969 OAU Convention, and creates a refugee status eligibility commission and a refugee appeals commission; their decisions cannot be challenged before the ordinary national courts. Recognition leads to a refugee card (Article 13).

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • Statutory text captured from the ecoi.net mirror of the UNHCR Refworld record; the official Refworld/Journal Officiel copy returned HTTP 403 and was not captured. The implementing decree that fixes the organisation, functioning and procedural rules of the two commissions (Article 16) was not captured; the law itself does not describe the decision timeline.

Which population, circumstances or geographic group does the mechanism cover?

Law 2005/006, Article 2 covers (a) any person with a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion who is outside the country of nationality (or of habitual residence, for stateless persons) and cannot or will not seek its protection, and (b) any person compelled to leave their habitual residence because of aggression, external occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in part or all of the country of origin or nationality. Family members who accompany or join the refugee are also treated as refugees (Article 5), the family being understood as the spouse(s), minor children and other dependent family members; unaccompanied children benefit from refugee status subject to verification (Article 6). Article 3 excludes persons seriously suspected of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, serious non-political crimes or acts contrary to the principles of the African Union or the United Nations.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • Statutory text captured from the ecoi.net mirror of the UNHCR Refworld record (official copy not fetchable, HTTP 403). The implementing decree on the eligibility procedure was not captured; the law does not set nationality-specific or prima facie group arrangements.
  • Law 2005/006, Article 2
    conformément à la convention de Genève
  • Law 2005/006, Article 2
    et la convention de l’OUA régissant les
  • Law 2005/006, Article 3
    Art 3 : Les dispositions de la présente loi
  • Law 2005/006, Article 5(3)
    des enfants mineurs et des autres
  • Law 2005/006, Article 6(2)
    (2) Tout enfant non accompagné, sous
  • Law 2005/006, Article 2
    - toute personne qui, craignant avec raison d’être persécutée à cause de sa race, de sa religion, de sa nationalité, de son appartenance à un certain groupe social ou de ses opinions politiques, se trouve hors du pays dont elle a la nationalité et qui ne peut ou, du fait de cette crainte, ne veut se réclamer de la protection de ce pays ; ou qui, si elle n’a pas de nationalité et se trouve hors du pays où elle avait sa résidence habituelle, à la suite de tels évènements, ne peut ou, en raison de la dite crainte, ne veut y retourner ;
  • Law 2005/006, Article 2
    - toute personne qui, du fait d’une agression, d’une occupation extérieure, d’une domination étrangère ou d’évènements troublant gravement l’ordre public dans une partie ou dans la totalité de son pays d’origine ou du pays dont elle a la nationalité, est obligée de quitter sa résidence habituelle pour chercher refuge dans un autre endroit à l’extérieur de son pays d’origine ou du pays dont elle a la nationalité.
  • Law 2005/006, Article 3
    Art 3 : Les dispositions de la présente loi ne sont pas applicables à toute personne à l’égard de laquelle des raisons sérieuses permettent de penser : - qu’elle a commis un crime contre la paix, un crime de guerre ou un crime contre l’humanité ; - qu’elle a commis un crime grave de caractère non politique et en dehors du pays d’accueil avant d’être admise comme réfugiée : - qu’elle s’est rendue coupable d’agissements contraires aux objectifs et aux principes de l’Union Africaine ; - qu’elle s’est rendue coupable d’agissements contraires aux buts et aux objectifs des Nations Unies.
  • Law 2005/006, Article 5(1)
    Art 5 : (1) Les membres de la famille d’une personne considérée comme réfugiée au sens des articles 2, 3 et 4 ci-dessus qui l’accompagnent ou le rejoignent sont également considérés comme réfugiés,

Where can protection be requested, and is this a direct application, border/in-country request, referral or other process?

Under Law 2005/006, Article 7, an asylum seeker must present to the competent authorities within fifteen (15) days of entering the national territory. The authority draws up a detailed report (civil status, occupation, nationality, precise reasons for exile, reasons for choosing Cameroon), issues a two-month non-renewable safe-conduct and transmits the file without delay to the refugee status eligibility commission. A foreign national already in Cameroon who cannot return home for Article 2 reasons may also lodge an asylum application, decided under the procedures fixed by the implementing decree. An application may be inadmissible where the applicant has already stayed in a first country of asylum.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • Statutory text captured from the ecoi.net mirror of the UNHCR Refworld record (official copy not fetchable, HTTP 403). The law does not name the office, address or contact channel of the competent authority that receives applications, nor the procedural rules of the eligibility commission (fixed by decree, not captured).

What happens after the request: registration, family handling, major support and rights where officially stated?

During the process, Law 2005/006 provides that no one may be refouled at the border or otherwise forced back to a territory where their life, physical integrity or freedom would be threatened (Article 7(1)); no criminal penalty applies for irregular entry or stay to a person arriving directly from such a territory who presents without delay to the authorities (Article 8(1)); no expulsion or removal of an asylum seeker may be executed before the eligibility commission rules on the application, save for national security, public order or a lawful decision (Article 8(2)); and an asylum seeker holding the certificate of filing of the file is free to move, while being required to inform the immigration authority of movements and changes of address (Article 8(3)). The law does not state reception support, work authorisation or family handling during the procedure.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • Statutory text captured from the ecoi.net mirror of the UNHCR Refworld record (official copy not fetchable, HTTP 403). The law does not set out reception support, work authorisation or housing for asylum seekers while the claim is pending, nor family registration steps; those remain unestablished from the captured text.

Which competent authority, UN body or official assistance channel should the person use?

The competent bodies under Law 2005/006 are the national authorities to which the asylum seeker presents on entry (Article 7) and, for the decision, the refugee status eligibility commission, with a refugee appeals commission (Article 16); their decisions are not subject to review by the ordinary courts (Article 17). UNHCR has a statutory role: an expulsion decision concerning a refugee is notified to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which seeks a country of asylum.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • Statutory text captured from the ecoi.net mirror of the UNHCR Refworld record (official copy not fetchable, HTTP 403). The law publishes no office address, telephone or online channel for lodging an application; current operational contact details of the eligibility commission and of the competent immigration authority were not found in the captured official texts.

These are the answers currently recorded in the catalogue. A missing or partial answer is not an eligibility decision.

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