“Non-admitted”: Migration-Related Detention of Forcibly Returned Citizens in Cameroon

Abstract

This chapter analyses risks and vulnerabilities for forced returnees who usually fall under the radar, namely non-admitted travellers. Third-country nationals can be forcibly returned to “home countries” both after receiving removal orders after years of life and work abroad or after decisions of non-admission, which are issued immediately upon arrival at borders. Through the introduction of carrier sanctions, migration control now occurs ever more outside of the geographical space of the Schengen area and through a politics of non-entry (Hathaway and Gammeltoft Hansen 2015). As a result, boarding denials and decisions of non-admission have become important tools of migration control. This chapter explores why and how the criminalisation of migration is currently expanding towards non-migrants in the Global South. In recent years, Cameroon case law has seen the introduction of an offence entitled “attempting to emigrate illegally.” As a consequence, citizens risk criminal prosecution when their departure projects fail to respect the administrative entry requirements of countries in the Global North. The chapter is based on research conducted in Douala, Cameroon, in the form of discussions with control agents at the international airport, investigations at a prison, a review of related case law, police registers, and interviews with Cameroonian returnees (November 2013–January 2014, and February 2016). Based on this material, the chapter argues that return risks for non-admitted travellers are related to emerging collaboration practices between immi- and emigration countries.