Michael S. Hoza: US Ambassador to Cameroon
The story of Christina Rose, a resident of Bafia in the Centre Region of Cameroon is pathetic, yet not an isolated one. It’s been over seven years since the husband gained asylum in the U.S.
In the U.S, filing for asylum requires every applicant to list the names of immediate family members including spouses. This is necessary for any future reunion.
Right after gaining asylum, Christina’s husband petitioned for his family – wife and four children to join him in the U.S. Christina and the children followed all required procedure at the U.S embassy level in Cameroon, including medical examinations and DNA tests on the kids to determine that they actually belong to them.
The kids – all got their visas, the mother was denied. Christina was asked to present a phone record of communication between herself and the husband and she did. After, they asked that she provide the embassy with money transfer records from the husband to her, she did. But this didn’t change their decision. Upon denying her the visa, the Embassy said Christina’s marriage certificate wasn’t for real – that it was fabricated. She presented the Embassy with photos from their traditional and Church wedding ceremonies which should easily determine for how long they have been married, judging from the age and quality of the pictures, but the Embassy still didn’t grant her a visa.
It’s been almost four years since the children left their mother to join the father in the U.S. That too, however, created a second problem. Three of the children are in their early teens and one by U.S standards is a minor. The minor, The Journal gathered, has since become so depressed that it attracted the attention of her Maryland school authorities. It was determined that the separation from her mother is the reason for her depression. As a result, the father had to give-up his full time job to provide additional support to the child. And not only is he not able to take care of the children alone, he now cannot provide for them on the paltry income he makes from a part time job.
Thiers isn’t an isolated case. There are many other Cameroonian families out here with similar predicaments – their families have been separated for the mere fact that genuine documentation for visa processing has not been furnished the Embassy in Yaounde.
Thiers isn’t an isolated case. There are many other Cameroonian families out here with similar predicaments – their families have been separated for the mere fact that genuine documentation for visa processing has not been furnished the Embassy in Yaounde.
The source, recalls that in May last year, Roberto Quiroz II, Embassy Public Affairs Officer and Nick Castellano, Assistant Regional Security Officer, speaking over CRTV’ s Morning Safari radio program, lamented how the high rate of fabrication of fraudulent documents for visa applications in Cameroon, has led to Cameroon being top on U.S Visa denial list in all of Africa.
With this background information, The source in January, sent in a request for an exclusive interview with the Consular Officer. The Public Relations Officer told us – not until after numerous follow-ups, that our request was forwarded to the Consular. Our editor who was in Cameroon waited for more than a month – leaving Cameroon February ending without a word from the Consular Officer or any other competent authority.
We interpret the Consular’s decision to ignore our request, snobbish and condescending. At least, we hoped for a reply to the effect that the Consular wasn’t immediately available – that would perhaps, have settled it. But we didn’t get that courtesy. Such treatment can only happen in Africa. The Consular Officer will not treat any American news organ with such negligence, recklessness and disrespect – not in America!
That said, we do not think at The Cameroon Journal, that the American Embassy in Cameroon is deliberately making it extra difficult for Cameroonians to obtain visas. Cameroon’s documentation problems are complicated and ridden with fraud. From both high and low places, the country has become so corrupt that at times conducting forensics is necessary to determine admissibility and legitimacy of documents and certifcates. Think for a second about land certificates, birth certificates, and school certificates, among others. Getting a genuine one can be as hard as the proverbial – a Carmel passing through the eye of a needle.
However, The source thinks that the Embassy can exercise restrain when it comes to those situations where photo and or video evidence are available. Consider marriages performed say more than fifteen years ago, when nobody really cared about acquiring those documents – there are always other means of verification to ascertain the legitimacy of the marriage. This is very important because, until very recently nobody in Cameroon cared to go for those certificates during weddings. But at least, they had photos and in some cases, videos.
In the case of Christina Rose where photos of both her traditional and church ceremonies exist, we think it should be an easy case to settle going by the age on the photos. For the sake of the four kids now in the care of a single parent, it will not be unnecessary for the embassy to revisit the case.
If the embassy keeps on enforcing all of the stringencies without considering the social realities of the people fifteen to twenty years ago, it will continue to build a wedge between families where it ought not to be.
Trying now to get couples who were married in the eighties or early 90s to produce marriage certificates will only continue to feed the falsification and fabrication industry in Cameroon.
