Despite the clearly-defined risk of being forcibly returned to torture and death in Afghanistan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has rejected an application for protection by leading Afghan women’s rights defender Farzana Adell Ghadiya, who formerly worked as Chief of Staff for the UN High Commission on Women in Kabul.
As a persecuted women’s rights activist, Hazara minority, and Ismaili Muslim – a combination that makes her a priority target of the Taliban – Adell Ghadiya had applied for a Temporary Resident Permit for Protection (TRP) given that she meets all the qualifications under the humanitarian program for Afghan refugees. It is a perfectly legitimate route for refugees to get to Canada (one often employed successfully by the Rural Refugee Rights Network), but IRCC failed to read her application materials and issued a boilerplate rejection usually sent to applicants for a temporary resident visa, a document that is time-limited and premised on the likelihood that the visitor will return to their country of origin.
But Farzana did not apply for a temporary resident visa. She applied for a TRP.
Advocates and supporters are calling on Immigration Minister Sean Fraser to immediately intervene and exercise his legally mandated discretion to provide Farzana with a Temporary Resident Permit as a path to safety and permanent residence.
“It’s shocking that the IRCC didn’t even take the time to read her affidavit and submissions, which lay out the threats to her life and the obstacles Farzana and many Afghans face in getting to Canada,” explains Matthew Behrens of the Rural Refugee Rights Network. “It’s a fundamental breach of fairness to assess an application as something it isn’t. It shows how little value the lives of Afghan women have for the Canadian government, which had no trouble getting almost 80,000 Ukrainians here in 6 months but has barely brought 20,000 Afghans here in 14 months. Minister Fraser must issue her a permit immediately before she winds up in a Taliban dungeon or six feet under.”
Farzana’s work building girls’ schools and maternity hospitals and starting educational programs drew significant Taliban threats through her years in Afghanistan, resulting in a 2013 beating so severe that she was left for dead, suffering pain to this day from a leg injury and two ruptured discs sustained in that beating. Her work as Chief of Staff for the UN High Commission on Women from 2016-2017 also places her in the gun sights of the Taliban.
In addition to over 30,000 supporters on a change.org petition, Farzana enjoys a strong support community of women in Ottawa, who speak with her on a regular basis and send money to keep her going in a third country where she is in hiding due to fears of being swept up in frequent street roundups and forcibly returned to her death in Afghanistan.
“I have a free room waiting for her in my home and we have a group who are willing to provide for all of her needs until she is fully settled,” says Bessa Whitmore, a professor emerita from Carleton University. “It simply boggles my mind that some bureaucrat failed to open her file, read it accurately, and approve it.”
Sharen Craig, who speaks daily with Farzana, is equally appalled at the manner in which Farzana’s file has been dismissed. “In many ways, she is the face of the failure of this government’s program to bring Afghan refugees here,” she says. “Farzana speaks out despite the risk to herself, not only on her own behalf but for all Afghans facing the brutality of the new regime in Kabul. But what does it take to get her here? We have spoken with so many MPs, there’s been so much attention to her case, and yet all we get is a brick wall of rejection. I am up every night worried with fear for my lovely friend, whom I truly feel has become like a daughter to me.”
Despite her disappointment, Adell Ghadiya feels hopeful that pressure from Canadians will turn this negative ruling around. “I really believe that if Mr. Fraser read my file, he would approve it,” she says. “I have seen so much love and kindness from Canadians supporting me and so many other Afghan people seeking safety, and I put my faith and trust in them to continue speaking up so that we can find the protection we need.”
For more information contact tasc@web.ca or (613) 300-9536.
Rural Refugee Rights Network
2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052
Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7
(613) 300-9536, tasc@web.ca, http://rrrncanada.blogspot.com/
