We did it! 3-Year-old Andrew Oremade Wins Citizenship, To be Reunited with Alberta Parents

 

After an inexcusable 22-month delay, Canada has finally completed the final stage of 3-year-old Andrew Oremade’s citizenship, the last step in ending the painful separation he has had to endure from his loving, legally adoptive parents Samuel and Itunu Oremade. They expect to be reunited soon.

 

Having kept a vulnerable 3-year-old from enjoying the love and support of his parents at this critical stage of life has been unconscionable. Andrew’s physical, emotional, and psychological health were needlessly placed at risk by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

 

In a statement to the thousands of people who signed a petition in their support, sponsored by the Rural Refugee Rights Network, Samuel and Itunu write:

 

 "We would like to use this avenue to appreciate everyone that supported and signed the petition for Andrew's citizenship approval. We are delighted and look forward to having him with us. It's been a long journey but worth every moment of it. We hope IRCC will do a comprehensive review of their processes to ensure families in similar situations are reunited as quickly as possible. ‘Alone we are strong but together we are stronger’. You all made this happen. Thank you, and God bless!"

 

You may recall that even though the Canadian government was offering evacuation flights from Nigeria in March, 2020, they informed Samuel and Itunu that little Andrew could not come with them. These loving parents could not abandon their son, and stayed on as long as they could despite a worsening political situation that saw riots in the streets near their accommodation. The shooting became so intense that Andrew was traumatized, crying out: “Mummy, lie down, that sound again.” Desperate pleas to the Canadian government for Andrew’s application to be processed were refused while others were processed on similar humanitarian grounds.

This family’s life was on hold for 22 months. Both parents were faced with impossible choices. Samuel had to return to Canada to continue his job, and in December 2020, Itunu did as well. “I was left between the devil and the deep blue sea. I was confused, pained, bitter and frustrated,” Itunu recalls. While her elderly mother offered to help, Itunu says “it hit me hard that I will have to travel without our son. I cried throughout the night, staring at Andrew and wishing God could just make a miracle happen. …No process or country should do this to a little 3-year-old boy. If it’s truly in the best interests of the child, then all hands must be on deck to get the family reunited by allowing Andrew to join his parents and start experiencing the physical love and affection he deserves.”

 

Unfortunately, Canada continues to place obstacles in the way of perfectly legitimate adoptions, forcing loving parents to spend years suffering endless separation while seeking to settle safely with their children. Needless to say, as Samuel and Itunu point out, it’s time for that to change.
 

Thanks again to all who supported, and especially to the family''s tireless lawyer, Alicia Backman-Beharry.

 

Matthew Behrens

Rural Refugee Rights Network

Reunite In-Canada Palestinian Refugees With their Gaza Loved Ones

  

Please sign and share this urgent action petition: https://www.change.org/p/reunite-in-canada-palestinian-refugees-with-their-gaza-loved-ones

At least a dozen convention refugees in Canada have been separated from their loved ones in war-ravaged Gaza for more than two years. Without an immediate, positive intervention, they face an additional separation of almost 3.5 years. They are traumatized children yearning for a parent’s comforting hugs or dreaming of a safe playground without bomb craters. They are spouses unable to build lives together. They are families for whom each moment apart is a cruel punishment. 

We are calling on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Minister Marco Mendicino to urgently enact special immigration measures (including, but not limited to, the blanket issuance of Early Entrance Temporary Resident Permits or Temporary Resident Visas) to immediately reunite these families. The best interests of affected children and Canada’s commitment to family reunification demand urgent action on these cases. It would be unconscionable to leave them in Gaza for at least another three years after UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared, "If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza.”     

Canada has a history of enacting such measures in response to humanitarian crises. Recently, IRCC announced a temporary residence public policy for in-Canada families of the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 tragedies. Last September, similar assistance was extended to those with loved ones affected by the horrific Beirut explosion. Following the December, 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, Canada waived fees and granted priority processing to hundreds of affected permanent resident applicants. 

The current conditions in Gaza constitute a humanitarian crisis that UNICEF concludes “adds to existing vulnerabilities and [is] likely to increase poverty, vulnerability and loss of livelihoods exacerbating an already dire situation.” Shortages of food, fuel, clean water, and medicine, compounded by extensive infrastructure damage, and a trauma that is particularly devastating for children and young couples, are just part of the daily life endured by separated family members who could begin the path to health and healing once reunited in Canada as they await processing of their permanent residency applications.

Coupled with these poor conditions is the fragile security situation in Gaza which, the Government of Canada acknowledges, “could deteriorate with little or no notice.” On May 28, 2021, Global Affairs Canada listed the Gaza Strip as a place to which one should “avoid all travel” due to “the possible resumption of armed hostilities.”

In early June, 2021, Canada granted Early Entrance Temporary Resident Permits to the Gaza-based husband and children of Ottawa Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo, who fled Gaza in 2019. The conditions faced by Qunoo’s family are no different than those impacting this group of refugees from Gaza.

We call on the Minister to immediately enact whatever measures are necessary to issue early entrance temporary resident permits or temporary resident visas to allow similar family reunification in the cases of in-Canada Palestinian refugees who have been found to be persons in need of protection and who have submitted permanent residence applications. Such a policy must be flexible enough to also include those in-Canada Palestinian refugee claimants who, following successful hearings, submit permanent resident applications during the remainder of 2021.

While the numbers of those who would benefit from such measures are modest, the positive difference it will make in all of their lives is huge.

On October 5, 2020, Minister Mendicino tweeted: "Our government strongly believes in the importance of keeping families together—particularly during difficult times. Now, more than ever, family reunification is an important component of Canada’s immigration system.” 

Answering this call to reunite in-Canada Palestinian refugee families with children and spouses facing such difficult times while stuck in Gaza will help give true life to that commitment.

(Image by the then 16-year-old Hamza Shaheen for an art exhibit featuring the work of Palestinian youth, created in art therapy classes for young Palestinians experiencing death and displacement, produced in 2015. “Everyone is gone and I stayed alone to make the world witness the injustice done to me.”)

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!! Jihan Qunoo Wins Permits to Reunite Her Gaza Family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Jihan and her family, pictured, the last time they saw one another, May, 2019) 

 

Following a month-long campaign to pressure the Canadian government to end the painful separation from her three war-traumatized children and husband in Gaza, Jihan Qunoo has won temporary resident permits for her loved ones to join her in Ottawa during the processing of their permanent residence applications.

“There have been so many tears and sleepless nights over the last two years, and then with the war, it felt like this dream of being reunited would never come true,” a relieved Qunoo said this morning, 24 hours after she and a group of supporters delivered a petition and personal letters to the Prime Minister's office and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino. “I cannot believe that I will soon be able to hug and play with my family and that they will never have to fear being in a war zone ever again.”

Qunoo went public during the bombardment of Gaza, sharing shocking images of her kids running and screaming as the bombs fell, including next door, where 12 people were killed. “The kids have been terrified. The fear of losing them forever or never having to hold them, hug them, hear their laughter or experience sibling bickering created a sense of terror and extreme insecurity in me. I am from Gaza, I have lived through tough times, and this constant fear of not knowing what the future will hold is not new to me, but nothing compares to the terror that I have felt for not seeing my daughters again.”

Qunoo says her children, who have suffered from depression and anxiety as a result of the lengthy separation and the recent attacks, are overjoyed at the prospect that they will see each other soon.

Qunoo also shares her special thanks for the almost 25,000 people who signed a petition in her support, her lawyer, Jacqueline Bonisteel, Matthew Behrens of the Rural Refugee Rights Network and members and friends in the Sisters Trust Canada.

“While we rejoice today with this news, and really look forward to welcoming Jihan’s family to Ottawa, we also hope this signals a willingness on the part of the Government of Canada to similarly reunite at least a dozen other Gaza refugees already living in Canada who have similarly been separated for years from their spouses and children,” Behrens says. “We look forward to the possibility of coming up with a creative solution for them as well so they do not have to endure up to another, on average, 39 months of painful separation from their children, their wives and husbands.”

For more information, contact the Rural Refugee Rights Network at tasc@web.ca

Desperate Gaza Refugee to Plead with Trudeau on June 7: “Bring My Traumatized Gaza Kids to Ottawa NOW! Don’t Force Me to Travel Back to the Middle East to Rescue Them!”

Ottawa – On Monday, June 7 at 11 am, Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo will visit the Prime  Minister’s Office at 80 Wellington Street (East entrance) to request an urgent meeting with Justin Trudeau as part of her fight to bring her three traumatized girls and husband to Ottawa from war-ravaged Gaza. If she is unable to secure permits for the family to reunite by June 9 at 12 noon, she says she will be forced to travel back to the Middle East to try and rescue them on her own.

 

         Qunoo, who took to national media in May to share disturbing images of her girls screaming and running from the bombing of Gaza while they were on a video chat with their mother, will present a petition with the signatures of over 24,000 people supporting her plea. Qunoo is seeking the immediate issuance of Early Entrance Temporary Resident Permits (TRP) to allow her family to be reunited during the processing of their permanent residency applications, which the latest figures show could take up to 39 months.

 

         “My children have been without me for two years already, and they might not see me for another three years,” Qunoo explains. “This is cruel and so painful. There is no reason for them and my husband not to be here with me while we await the processing. Their lives right now in Gaza are hell. They barely survived the latest war, and the damage to everything means their lives are one big trauma.”

 

         Qunoo’s application for the TRPs has been sitting unacknowledged on the desk of Immigration Marco Mendicino for almost two weeks. The Minister has the legislated power to immediately issue those permits on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. 

 

         In a video message to Mendicino and Trudeau, Qunoo explains: “Having to experience first-hand what my kids went through in recent conflict in Gaza, prior to the cease fire, has played havoc with my emotions. The fear of losing them forever or never having to hold them, hug them, hear their laughter or experience sibling bickering has created a sense of terror and extreme insecurity. I am from Gaza, have lived through tough times and this constant fear of not knowing what the future will hold is not new to me but nothing, and I say it again, that NOTHING compares to the terror that I now feel for not seeing my daughters again – I was not with them when the air strikes blew UP the building right next to my kids’ home with 12 people dead leaving 1 infant as a survivor. I was not with them when they were running around in fear and didn’t know where to hide, and I was not with them when they cling to each other and kept screaming during the night for me to help them!”

 

         Qunoo is working with the Rural Refugee Rights Network, whose coordinator, Matthew Behrens, notes: “The trauma that families like Jihan’s go through from separation is incalculable. That trauma is compounded when you consider the horrific conditions in Gaza leading up to and after the most recent war.

 

         “TRPs are exactly meant for the compelling and extraordinary circumstances faced by her family. We have seen TRPs issued in conditions far less extreme than those facing Jihan’s family. In fact, a 13-year-old boy from Surrey, BC, who wanted to play in the Little League World series in 2018 was granted one.  A feminist government that grants a TRP so a boy can play ball can surely extend that same spirit of humanitarian consideration immediately to a family whose three girls are afraid to go to sleep at night because they justifiably fear that darkness will bring them missiles and death.”

 

         To arrange an interview with Jihan Qunoo and for more information, call (613) 300-9536 or tasc@web.ca

 

Petition link: https://www.change.org/p/help-3-young-girls-in-gaza-war-zone-get-to-their-ottawa-mom

 

Video Plea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x15GK2_XVKo

 

Rural Refugee Rights Network

2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052

Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7

(613) 300-9536, tasc@web.ca, http://rrrncanada.blogspot.com/

 

 

Urgent Action Phone-in Friday: Don’t Force Ottawa Refugee Jihan Qunoo Back to Middle East to Rescue her Kids

 

On June 4, please make two phone calls (sample messages below) on the 52nd anniversary of Canada signing the Refugee Convention. The federal government must abide by its legal commitment and issue urgent temporary resident permits to Jihan Qunoo’s three girls, aged 6 to 11 – Aleen, Kenzi and Maryam – and husband Mohammed, stuck in Gaza. Otherwise, Jihan will be forced by Canada’s failure to act to board a plane June 9 at 4 pm and head back to the Middle East in a desperate bid to save her family on her own. We cannot allow this to happen when the Immigration Minister has all the paperwork needed to issue the permits, as well as the legislated power to do so on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

 

Canada has recognized Jihan’s refugee status but has failed to begin processing her family’s file. The permits would allow the family, traumatized by years of separation, deprivation, and war, to come to Ottawa and heal together during a processing period that recent estimates show could be up to 39 months.

 

It is almost two weeks since urgent temporary resident permit applications were submitted for the three traumatized children and their father. It is also almost a month since Jihan, an Ottawa refugee, went public, pleading with the federal government to reunite her three children and husband from the Gaza war zone where her immediate loved ones are desperately clinging to the hope of immediate reunification in Canada. 

 

Jihan’s plea to Prime Minister Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino is printed below.

 

Here are two messages with phone numbers. You can email tasc@web.ca to let us know you called.

 

SAMPLE MESSAGE 1

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister’s Office, 613 992-4211 (They may try to transfer you to the useless immigration line. Don’t let them. Say you have a message to leave with the Prime Minister about an important human rights issue.)

 

Hi, my name is XXXXXXX and I am calling to support Ottawa Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo. She desperately needs to be reunited with her three traumatized children and husband from Gaza. Last month, the building next to them was hit, and 12 people were killed. The girls are terrified. Her application for early entrance temporary resident permits is sitting unanswered in Marco Mendicino’s office, so I am turning to you to urge you to speak with him to get those permits issued immediately. Otherwise, Jihan will be forced to fly to the Middle East herself with a flight scheduled for June 9 at 4 pm. Please don’t make her have to try and rescue her family on her own. Canada should step up, do the right thing, and issue those permits now. Thank you.

 

SAMPLE MESSAGE 2

Parliamentary Secretary to the Immigration Minister, Peter Schiefke 613-957-3744 (or, if full, 450-510-2305)

 

Hi, my name is XXXXXXX and I am calling to support Ottawa Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo. She desperately needs to be reunited with her three traumatized children and husband from Gaza. Last month, the building next to them was hit, and 12 people were killed. The girls are terrified. Her application for temporary resident permits is sitting unanswered in Marco Mendicino’s office, so I am turning to you as Parliamentary Secretary to urge you to speak with him to get those permits issued immediately. Otherwise, Jihan will be forced to fly to the Middle East herself on June 9 at 4 pm. Please don’t make her have to try and rescue her family on her own. Canada should step up, do the right thing, and issue those permits now. You yourself have spoken eloquently about your own grandmother’s flight as a refugee from a dictatorship, and so hopefully understand this urgent situation. Thank you

 

 

Jihan’s Desperate Plea to Reunite Her Family (the video will be uploaded shortly)

 

This is a plea to Prime Minister Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.

My name is Jihan Qunoo and I am a refugee in Ottawa. I need you to issue temporary resident permits to my three little girls and husband no later than 12 noon on June 9 so they can get out of Gaza.

Otherwise, I am left with no choice but to board a flight the afternoon of June 9 to return to the Middle East and try to rescue them myself. Please don’t put me into this corner. You have everything you need to issue the permits. Each minute of waiting is torture for me and my family. 

I am desperate… 

Having to experience first-hand what my kids went through in recent conflict in Gaza, prior to the cease fire, has played havoc with my emotions. The fear of losing them forever or never having to hold them, hug them, hear their laughter or experience sibling bickering has created a sense of terror and extreme insecurity.  

I am from Gaza, have lived through tough times and this constant fear of not knowing what the future will hold is not new to me but nothing, and I say it again, that NOTHING compares to the terror that I now feel for not seeing my daughters again – I was not with them when the air strikes blew UP the building right next to my kids’ home with 12 people dead leaving 1 infant as a survivor. I was not with them when they were running around in fear and didn’t know where to hide, and I was not with them when they cling to each other and kept screaming during the night for me to help them!  

It is this extreme apprehension that has pushed me to make every desperate attempt a mother would make to connect with her kids. I cannot let another airstrike, or another lost life be the determining factor of the fate of my girls. I have to be with them, I have to protect them and be their sanctuary even if it risks all what I fought for, even if it risks that I go back to where I ran from. 

The ceasefire has provided a temporary reprieve from the constant threat but it has also created more desperation. My girls cannot sleep at night, they huddle in one room and sleep when it is day time as they believe and fear that death comes with the night.

Unless you can issue the temporary resident permits by June 9 at 12 noon, I will be forced to leave for the Middle East. I am not sure how I can bring them across the GAZA border but I have been trying, and will do whatever a mother can do to save her kids and her husband in the hope that they never have to go back to Gaza, that they never look back to the time of war and terror. I hope through the support of the Canadian government, I am able to bring them to Canada – where they have the opportunity to heal and move forward and have hopes and dreams that all young girls their age have the right to!! 

I do not want to make this difficult journey, but if we do not receive those permits, you will be forcing me to leave so that as a mother I can save them and be with them in any way I can…

Thank you for watching this video.