The Right to Non-discrimination and the Protection of Foreigners Status within the CEMAC Sub-Region: The Case of Cameroon, Chad and Gabon

Abstract

Cameroon, Chad, and Gabon have a series of proliferated laws, legal provisions, and institutions having overlapping mandates in various documents regarding the protection and promotion of foreigners’ rights residing in their respective territories. Despite the available laws, international law remains the main instrument that regulates foreigners’ treatment within the states. Since the creation of CEMAC, member states as a whole and Cameroon, Chad, and Gabon in particular have established credible policies in protecting foreigners living within their respective territories. Even though with the establishment of laws, these laws, for a long period, have become obscure and obsolete. Migrants continue to experience aspects of violence, discrimination, and expulsion regardless of the status they occupy. States, on their part, suffer especially when these foreigners indulge in fraudulent activities that affect the security and sovereignty of the state. These problems faced by migrants despite the availability of local laws on foreigners’ protection have instigated the posing of questions in order to ascertain the adequacy of the lawful protection of foreigners in Cameroon, Chad, and Gabon.