(YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON) — Cameroonian authorities detained journalists and a lawyer in Yaoundé while they tried to interview migrants held at a detention facility as part of an inquiry into U.S. third-country deportations.
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the detentions and called for the group’s immediate release, framing the arrests as a test of transparency around U.S. removal arrangements.
Reporting described an Associated Press journalist being beaten by police during the arrests, and said authorities confiscated equipment from those detained.
Freelance journalist Randy Joe Sa’ah, among those detained, said the experience was “extremely stressful,” and said he was surprised by how quickly the situation escalated.
Shaheen said the arrests “are deeply alarming and underscore the concerns I laid out alongside fellow Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in our recent report.”
Her statement linked the incident in Yaoundé to broader questions about how the Trump Administration conducts third-country deportations, a practice that sends migrants to countries other than their own.
Shaheen said the administration expanded what was “once a narrow and rarely used practice” into “an enormously costly and opaque standing system of global removals.”
The detentions, she argued, reinforced concerns about access to information on where migrants are sent, what arrangements underpin the transfers, and who bears responsibility for the outcomes.
In her statement, Shaheen also presented the issue as one requiring congressional oversight, pressing for clearer accounting of agreements and decision-making.
She demanded answers for the public, writing that “Congress and the American people deserve answers about these costly and completely opaque deals” and that “the Administration must ensure accountability and full transparency for these deportations.”
The dispute centers on third-country deportations, which involve removing migrants to countries they are not from, rather than returning them to their countries of nationality.
Shaheen’s criticism focused on how the practice operates at scale and how difficult it can be, in her telling, to track what happens after migrants are transferred under arrangements that she described as opaque.
Her statement also highlighted concerns about safeguards, especially when journalists and legal representatives seek to document the process by visiting detention sites, speaking directly with migrants, and collecting information about removals.
The detentions in Yaoundé came as that kind of public-interest inquiry tried to reach migrants who arrived in Cameroon after U.S. removals.
Shaheen said the costs to American taxpayers compound the accountability problem, arguing that the expanded system pairs limited transparency with heavy spending.
Reporting cited by Shaheen’s statement described a broad removal effort to third countries and substantial overall spending, which Shaheen used to press for fuller disclosure by U.S. officials.
The migrants in Cameroon, Shaheen said, had been granted withholding of removal status in the U.S., a protection from deportation to countries where individuals fear persecution or harm.
That status does not erase a person’s immigration case, but it does signify that U.S. authorities determined they could not send the individual to a feared country.
Because the protection centers on the risk tied to return, the country chosen for removal becomes a central point in the controversy, especially when the destination is not the migrant’s own.
Reporting described two groups arriving in Cameroon over the past several weeks, with the first group arriving in January 2026 and a second group arriving in early February.
Shaheen’s statement treated the Yaoundé arrests as a warning sign for access to basic facts about those arrivals, including where migrants are being held and under what conditions they can speak with journalists and lawyers.
In her demand for immediate release, Shaheen tied press freedom concerns to the mechanics of oversight, arguing that intimidation and confiscation of equipment can limit what the public learns about government actions.
Her statement did not name the detained Associated Press journalist or the lawyer, but it described them as part of a group seeking to interview migrants at the detention facility in the capital.
Shaheen’s argument rested on a simple chain of accountability: when removals rely on opaque arrangements, independent reporting and legal inquiry become more difficult, and Congress has fewer tools to test official claims.
She wrote that the arrests and detentions require a direct response, both from Cameroonian authorities holding the detainees and from U.S. officials responsible for the deportation policy that drew reporters to Yaoundé.
The statement did not detail what Cameroonian authorities alleged or whether formal charges were filed, but it described the arrests as tied directly to the attempt to interview migrants.
Shaheen also did not set out the full terms of any arrangements underpinning the removals to Cameroon, but she described them as “completely opaque deals” and demanded greater disclosure.
Her focus on congressional oversight placed responsibility on the Trump Administration to explain how it selects third countries, what safeguards apply to migrants transferred there, and what reporting Congress receives.
Developments that would materially change the story include the release of the detained journalists and the lawyer, any formal action by Cameroonian authorities to justify the detentions, and any U.S. disclosure that clarifies the terms of third-country deportations.
For now, Shaheen’s statement left the immediate demand unchanged, calling for the detainees’ “immediate release” and pressing for “accountability and full transparency” in deportations that have become a point of dispute in Washington and a flashpoint in Yaoundé.
Sa’ah, describing the moment the situation turned, said it was “extremely stressful.”
Ranking Member Shaheen Condemns Arrests Over Third-Country Deportations at Yaoundé
Senator Jeanne Shaheen is demanding the release of journalists and a lawyer detained in Cameroon while investigating U.S. third-country deportations. The incident highlights concerns over the lack of transparency and high costs associated with current removal policies. Reports of police violence against the press have further intensified calls for accountability regarding how the U.S. manages migrant transfers to third nations like Cameroon.
