A DW-journalist from Cameroon, wanted to fly to a conference in Australia. But she was not allowed to enter the country. In the process, they had submitted all documents on time – even several times.
“Actually, I should be now in Australia, and on Saturday to South Africa to continue their travel,” says Mimi, Mefo in a pre-recorded Video that will be shown on the “Integrity of the 20″conference at Griffith University in Brisbane. And in fact: Actually, you would have to keep one of the Keynote Speeches. Personally. The topic of the proposed presentation: your experience as a English-language journalist in the ongoing conflict in Anglophone Cameroon, where since 2016, around 3000 people were killed and 500,000 were displaced. The people in the English-speaking West of the country feel, in the majority French-speaking country at a disadvantage.
Asylum theft in Australia?
Mefos visa application for Australia was twice rejected. The second letter of rejection from the Ministry of the interior was, because you have not fulfilled the grounds that “the requirements of the migration regulations as they were defined in 1994,”. Obviously, the Australian side was afraid that Mefo and place of asylum, could apply for.
It Mefo had moved recently to Germany, where she graduated at the DW first an internship and then a contract as a freelancer under wrote. “Why should I give up my Job at the Deutsche Welle, to move to Australia?”, ask Mefo. “The DW has done a lot, so I can work and remain in Germany. To me it is very good, why should I give all of that to me is illegal in Australia to stop?”
In the English-speaking part of the country of Cameroon in Buea, has been brewing for 2016, a bloody conflict
Especially since you had already booked a flight to South Africa and had indicated in the visa application also. “I wanted to fly, neither for fun nor for any picnic to Australia. The authorities have gotten all my papers.”
International attention by the arrest
Mefo had provided in December 2018 international headlines when she was arrested in her home country Cameroon for four days. The accusation: the dissemination of terrorist propaganda. “I was arrested because I had worked as a reporter,” she says. “Every Journalist in Cameroon is currently in danger, especially if he is reported, regardless of the crisis of the English-speaking Community.” Mefo had reported about the murder of an American missionary by the military in the troubled region. Only after strong protests from within Cameroon and abroad, she came free. Also, the refusal of Australian visa is provided for reactions on Twitter.
Following the arrest in Cameroon, Mefo left the country. Then, she traveled to several Western countries, including the USA, the UK, Norway and France. Later, she successfully applied for a residence permit in Germany. If you absolutely want to make somewhere would have an asylum application, they would have done this already in one of these countries, argues Mefo. As you learned from the negative visa decision by the Australian authorities, referred to this as crazy: “It is one of many ways, to Silence journalists.”
Documents were complete
But why should Australia have an interest in making an English-language journalist from Cameroon silenced? For this purpose, Mefo has no plausible explanation. “The Australian authorities will see the documents in the future, hopefully in a more thorough way, if you get the visa application of one of the African-born journalist.” Because the complaint contained Details such as your address in Germany, copies of your employment contract and your air tickets to South Africa. “There was no objective reason to deny me the visa,” says Mefo.
In Australia many large daily Newspapers are published in the beginning of the week in Protest with blackened front pages – the leaves and the associations of Journalists criticize an increasing restriction of the freedom of the press in the country.
The trip to South Africa has begun, Mefo, by the way, as planned. There you will speak to a conference on investigative journalism. The journey, however, began in Germany.