An estimated 12,000 visas applications are received by the embassy each year
William Swaney, head of consular service at the US embassy in Yaounde - Cameroon, has revealed that about an average of 10 Cameroonians per month and 120 are jailed yearly due to fraudulent applications to the US. “We work in close collaboration with the police and gendarmes. Whenever we discover cases of fraud, we call their attention,” Swaney, told a local newspaper, Le Jour, recently.By Yemti Harry Ndienla
Some of the fraudsters are currently serving various jail terms or awaiting trial at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde.
There is no gainsaying that many Cameroonians increasingly running away from their country using whatever means. While some are running due to unhealthy political climate, disregard for fundamental human rights and the non-respect for merit from the repressive CPDM regime of president Paul Biya, no doubts others are doing so due to abject poverty, unemployment, endemic corruption, favoritism and tribalism. Besides, many others are running away from unhealthy traditional practices, witchcraft among many others. Meanwhile, others are attracted abroad by the numerous job opportunities leading to higher income, including better educational, social and health facilities.
On this score, an estimated 12,000 visas applications are received by the US embassy each year. Talk less of those of other European countries. Like the US embassy, the numbers keep increasing year – in - year out. Reason why an estimated 13,000 applications have been envisaged at the US embassy this year.
Though the consular officer told Le Jour, that about half of those who applied where issued a US visa, he however regretted that embassy authorities are now contemplating to reduce the number of visas issued because of fraud coupled with the fact that most Cameroonians who obtain non-immigrant visas to the US end up not returning to their country and even those who go there with student visas never enroll in any schools.
While advising against the use of intermediaries by visa seekers and those applying for visa lottery, Swaney warns perpetrators of fraud that the embassy has strengthened vigilance and now works in close collaboration with authorities of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation and the police and gendarmes to track down fraudsters and combat fabrication of fake documents. And said further that civil status registration services have been sensitised and reinforced with modern information systems to help them better manage records.
While emphasizing that visa seekers should apply in person, the head of consular service advised those not well informed to consult the consular service for authentic information to avoid spending huge sums of monies to unscrupulous intermediaries who have no idea on how the embassy operates.
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Cameroon's academic development is far beyond its economic development. A society where university graduates are riding bend skins bike taxis is a cause for concern amongst ruling classes. The survival objective for a better opportunity and education of those sent to jail was should be looked as a mitigating factor by the justice system even if they committed fraud and punishment should measure the intent for a better education. We all seek the good things out of life and by faith or other means want to get them. Sometimes we fall on the way side and may just have needed a helping hand to lift us up to move on.
Placing them in jail for me is not the right thing to do given their original intent of going to school. Government should have instead put in place alternative measures to deal with such cases. Placing them in confined reformatory institutions such as the Borstal Institute in Buea and Betamba in the Centre Province with qualified teachers for a one or two year crash programme will enable them to stay within a juvenile facility, study hard, do communal work, read and pass correctly in their exams and return to University after one or two years. Placing qualified Cameroonian youth who are holders of GCE O, A and Probatoire, BACC Certificates in jail with hardened criminals, murderers, cheats, and rapists may not be the answer to solving such a problem and these youths may end up becoming hardened criminals. These youth could be remanded into juvenile institutions and much profit could be got out of them.
I find the decision of the courts heavy handed and very severe. Its deterrent purpose is defeated by shear aspects of mercy on the youth.
We need our youth even if they cheat on us. Our goal is to turn them into responsible citizens. Given the state of Cameroon 's prison system we are en-route to creating more recidivists who will continue to burden the prison system in the years ahead. Government should revive its juvenile corrections facilities and make them to become centres of reformation, re-education and excellence. Juvenile justice reform should be looked into as the new procedural code takes effect all over the country. A safety net for our youth needs to be strategically designed. Not all incriminations should be faced with stiff prison sentences. The resources spent by Government to keep a youth in prison may be more than what is needed to educate a youth to graduate school.
Our country needs its best minds and brains to lead the Cameroon of tomorrow. No youth should be left on the wayside. All Cameroonian youths are valuable and should be given opportunity to correct their faults and open a second front to their lives. If Government does these reforms, I am sure we may be able to build a far reaching new society where opportunity would be at the reach of everyone.
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