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.

 

 

Call & Write to Reunite 3 Gaza Girls with their Ottawa Mom: May 31-June 1

(Sample email/phone message below!) 

This event is also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/2759715057653025

On May 31 & June 1 (or whenever you get this message), please write/call Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to demand that he help save the lives of three Gaza girls and their father by issuing Temporary Resident Permits that would allow them to reunite with their Ottawa mom while their permanent residency applications are processed (which could take at least 2 years).

The best interests of these children and Canada’s commitment to family reunification demand immediate action on their cases. It would be unconscionable to leave them in Gaza for at least another two years after UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared, "If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza.” The impact of the recent attacks on Gaza, compounded by 15 years of living under one of the most draconian economic blockades ever imposed – described by The International Committee of the Red Cross as  "a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law” – have only confirmed the United Nations prediction, made in 2012, that by 2020 Gaza would be unliveable.

On October 5, 2020, Marco 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.”

These are difficult times for anyone living in Gaza and for their loved ones abroad awaiting reunification. There is no better time to act, and no worse time to fail to act.

Below is a sample email and addresses to send it to, as well as a phone message to leave in Mendicino’s Ottawa and Toronto offices. 

Sample email

(please make sure you add in those cc-ed)

(Feel free to add in a personal statement at the beginning or end—ie, “As a parent, I cannot imagine the impossible situation this family is in” or “People’s lives should not be at risk because of politics” etc.

Subject Line: Please Issue Temporary Resident Permits to Gaza Girls Maryam (11), Kenzi (10) and Aleen (6) Qunoo and their Father 

To: IRCC.Minister-Ministre.IRCC@cic.gc.ca, Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca

Cc: Marc.Garneau@parl.gc.ca, Soraya.MartinezFerrada@parl.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca, Jenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca, Chandra.Arya@parl.gc.ca, Peter.Schiefke@parl.gc.ca,  Kamal.Khera@parl.gc.ca, Yasmin.Ratansi@parl.gc.ca, Salma.Zahid@parl.gc.ca, Catrina.Tapley@cic.gc.ca, mona.fortier@parl.gc.ca, Marwan.Tabbara@parl.gc.ca, Paul.Manly@parl.gc.ca, Iqra.khalid@parl.gc.ca, Joel.Lightbound@parl.gc.ca, Ruby.Sahota@parl.gc.ca, Lenore.Zann@parl.gc.ca, Majid.Jowhari@parl.gc.ca, Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca, Pam.Damoff@parl.gc.ca

Dear Minister Mendicino,

I am one of the 23,000+ people who have signed a petition in support of Ottawa resident Jihan Qunoo's family, who need your help to escape Gaza.

I am writing to demand that you exercise your power under Section 25.1 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Humanitarian and compassionate considerations) to immediately issue Temporary Resident Permits to three traumatized children – Maryam (11), Kenzi (10) and Aleen (6) Qunoo – and their father,  Mohammed, so this family can be reunited with their Ottawa mother, Jihan. As you likely know from the news, the situation in Gaza – recently subjected to a bombing campaign estimated to be twice as destructive as the devastating 2014 attacks – is incredibly unsafe. Indeed, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared recently: "If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza."

The children’s and their father’s application for temporary residence permits – with all the necessary supporting documents that illustrate the ongoing danger they continue to face if left in Gaza – was sent to your office on May 26, 2021. Their permanent residency application was submitted in October, 2020. The family has been apart for almost two full years, with devastating consequences on the children, who suffer from major depressive disorder, severe asthma, anxiety, trouble eating, inconsolable crying fits, and the ongoing and realistic fear that going outside could risk their lives in the event a bomb falls out of the sky from the drones that continually fly over their neighbourhood. 

They barely escaped the latest onslaught of violence; the building next to them was hit, and the kids’ windows were blown out. There were no bomb shelters for them to seek safety. Even before the war, electricity was scarce, schools and health care were in dreadful shape, and the water was severely polluted. Conditions are far worse than they've ever been,  and belligerent rhetoric could at any time escalate to renewed bombing.

There is nothing complicated in this request. You can issue a permit immediately. Failure to do so will have tragic consequences for this family.

On October 5, 2020, you 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.”

There can be no more difficult times than the ones facing anyone enduring daily life in Gaza. For the husband and children of Ottawa resident Jihan Qunoo, the only hope left is the issuance of Temporary Resident Permits that would allow them to live safely with Jihan in Canada as their permanent residency applications are finalized. 

They deserve our support, particularly during this difficult time.

Your Name
Address

++++++++

Please make two phone calls as well!

Marco Mendocino’s office (leave a message if you can): 613-992-6361, 416-781-5583

Sample phone message (please leave one if you get the answering machine—PLEASE only leave respectful messages. The latest round of attacks is upsetting for all, but negative comments or hateful rhetoric will only hurt the family)

Hi, my name is XXXXX and I'm calling from TOWN, PROVINCE. I’m calling to support three Gaza Girls and their father. The Qunoo girls –  Maryam (11), Kenzi (10) and Aleen (6) – and their father need Temporary Resident Permits immediately to escape the horrible conditions in Gaza. Please issue the permits today so they can be reunited with their mom, Jihan, in Ottawa. Everyday you delay only increases the risk they face. It’s the right thing to do. Thank you."

More information: Rural Refugee Rights Network, tasc@web.ca

Help Get This Ottawa Mom's Kids Out of Gaza and to Canada!

 

(You can sign the petition at http://chng.it/RjycwGZt )

Ottawa aid worker, mother of 3, and Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo has desperately waited 2 years to reunite with her young girls (aged 6, 10 and 11), now stuck in Gaza under constant bombardment. The Canadian government must immediately issue temporary resident permits to rescue them from the daily terror of a war zone and the long-term effects of separation from their mom, including major depressive disorder, severe asthma, anxiety, trouble eating, inconsolable crying fits, and having no one who can properly care for them (health challenges prevent both their father and grandmother from providing the care they need). Schools are closed, and e-learning is impossible with lack of internet and electricity. Jihan worries that there are no bomb shelters for the children to take cover.

Jihan is a hard-working, well-established Ottawa resident working both a full time job as well as additional part-time jobs to financially support her family in Gaza. But the stress of separation – especially now as the horror of war once again grips the area – is taking an incalculable toll, just as it would on any parent and any child. When Jihan calls her children – Aleen, Mariam, Kenzi – she can hear them crying from fear as bombs explode in the background.

Issuing the girls Temporary Resident Permits would allow them to reunite with their mother in Canada, improve their physical and mental health, and provide them the time together they need to recover from two impossibly difficult years. It would also allow them the opportunity to enjoy much-needed safety until conditions considerably improve in Gaza and their family sponsorship application is expedited and completed. 

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino has the authority and discretion under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to grant these permits. This is a unique and exceptional situation, involving serious danger to the safety of three young girls in a war zone where, even absent the current escalation of military attacks, the devastating effects of a long-term blockade mean these girls do not have access to the educational, psychological, and medical services they need to address the significant trauma afflicting them at such a tender age.

Failure to act now will cause irreparable emotional and physical harm, set the kids back in their education, and impair their ability to grow up in a healthy and safe environment.

The Government of Canada has long been obligated to act in a humanitarian and compassionate manner in such cases given  “those facts, established by the evidence, which would excite in a reasonable [person] in a civilized community a desire to relieve the misfortunes of another” Chirwa v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) (1970), 4 IAC 338.

Canada is also obligated by both domestic and international commitments to act in a manner consistent with an approach “taking into account the best interests of a child directly affected.” Indeed, Article 3(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child confirms “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.” The Minister’s own guidelines point out that “factors relating to a child’s emotional, social, cultural and physical welfare should be taken into account when raised.”

Temporary Resident Permits must be issued immediately to Aleen, Mariam, Kenzi as well as to their father, Mohammed.

Thank you!

Media Coverage: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-mother-children-gaza-permanent-resident-1.6024068

Detained Nicaraguan asylum seeker to be deported rather than reunited with wife in Canada--Unless We Stop it!

Receiving Asylum Should Not be a Perverse Game Show Where Which Door You Pick Determines Whether you Find Safety

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detained Nicaraguan asylum seeker to be deported rather than reunited with wife in Canada. #FreeRoberto

#EndFamilySeparations

Roberto Carlos Terán Rivera is facing deportation this Thursday (April 29th) even though he legally has the right to present at the Canadian border to join his wife, an asylum seeker with a case in progress in Canada. Roberto fears returning to Nicaragua. Details about his case can found in a recent Toronto Star article:

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/04/23/why-choosing-the-wrong-door-may-have-cost-this-man-his-chance-to-claim-asylum-in-canada-and-rejoin-his-wife.html  (Full text below)

Roberto continues to pursue his legal rights before the Courts and hopes for a judicial stay of his removal to Nicaragua. Specifically, his attorneys in the United States that are representing him on a pro bono basis have appealed the decision of the District Court.  However, this wrong can also be made right by the U.S. government simply permitting Roberto to proceed to Canada as he has argued before the Court is his right to do so under the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) and pursuant to Canadian Law.

Maureen Silcoff, President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL), has called for government officials to act: “Officials must pull the plug on his removal and allow him to come to Canada. The time to act is now, before it’s too late.”

Please Free Asylum Seeker Roberto Terán Rivera to join his wife in Canada. 

For details, contact Canadian lawyer Joanna Berry: Joanna@berrylaw.ca; 519-432-4568

 

Why choosing the wrong ‘door’ may have cost this man his chance to claim asylum in Canada and rejoin his wife

By

 

Nicholas Keung 

Toronto Star

5 min

 

Roberto Carlos Teran Rivera had every right to try to join his wife in Canada.

All the asylum-seeker had to do, by law, was show up at an official crossing point along the U.S.-Canada border and make his claim.

But a twist of fate saw Teran Rivera choose the wrong “door” for his entry into this country.

Now the 39-year-old sits in a holding cell in New York, awaiting deportation next Thursday to Nicaragua, a country Amnesty International says is in a “human rights crisis” under President Daniel Ortega’s dictatorial regime.

This week, Teran Rivera’s last-ditch effort to be released — and join his wife, Blanca Maydeling Castillo Saenz, a refugee claimant in Quebec — was refused by a New York court.

“The court recognized that Teran Rivera’s alleged plight is sympathetic on a human level,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. in dismissing the detainee’s plea for release.

“The political branches of government — not this court — have authority to address such concerns.”

How did it all go so wrong?

Castillo Saenz says she and her husband, along with her brother, fled Nicaragua in November 2018 via Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala before arriving in Mexico. The three were separated after crossing into the U.S. and were detained at different facilities.

Teran Rivera was deported back to Nicaragua after a month, but Castillo Saenz was released shortly after and ultimately made it to Canada in June 2019 for asylum.

Late last year, her husband returned to the U.S. again and made his attempt to join her in Canada.

Asylum seekers are often turned back at the Canada-U.S. border. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement that’s been in place since 2004, each country recognizes the other as a safe place to seek protection. That means Canada can turn back potential refugees who arrive at land ports of entry along the Canada-U.S. border on the basis they should pursue their claims in the States, the country where they first arrived.

However, exemptions are granted to those — such as Teran Rivera — who already have family members in Canada.

He would have been allowed in at a land port of entry.

Teran Rivera’s critical mistake was trying to cross into Canada through a side road connecting Quebec and Vermont.

While Teran Rivera could have just breezed past a Canadian port of entry to join his wife, he followed the now-famed Roxham Road, an unguarded border point in Quebec, into Canada instead.

Under border restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, all such irregular migrants have been banned and subject to return to the other country.

Teran Rivera said he was apprehended by Canadian officials upon crossing into Quebec.

“I don’t know why he didn’t cross through an official port of entry,” Castillo Saenz told the Star this week through a translator.

“I was waiting for the call from immigration to meet with him in Canada, but, sadly, I received a call where I was informed my husband was detained by U.S. immigration.”

Even then, the door wasn’t meant to be shut on him permanently.

Canadian officials handed him a piece of paper to go back to the U.S. He said he was told “this was temporary” and that he could carry on applying for protection in Canada later.

However, Teran Rivera has been held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, N.Y., since January.

In his plea under a habeas corpus application, he said he shouldn’t have been detained in the U.S. when he had a lawful right to enter Canada and wished to immediately “self-deport” to the north of the border.

“My intention was always to reunite with my wife, who is in Canada. If I had been allowed to ask for admission to Canada, I would have,” he said in an affidavit filed with the U.S. court as part of his petition for release. “I feared for my life and I still do fear for my life in Nicaragua.”

Heather Neufeld, a University of Ottawa immigration law professor, says Canadian officials have made it clear in Teran Rivera’s “direct back order” that he was not being found inadmissible or ineligible to make an asylum claim here.

He was turned back only as a result of the Order in Council that presently bans non-essential border crossing, she said, and letting him come to Canada would not have frustrated the purpose of the Safe Third Country Agreement.

“There is simply no official mechanism through which Canada Border Services Agency could have processed Mr. Teran Rivera under the STCA exception without him leaving and re-entering, given that he did not initially enter Canada at a port of entry,” Neufeld noted in an affidavit as a legal expert for Teran Rivera.

However, the U.S. justice said the district court did not have jurisdiction over requests to stay a removal order, let alone to make a declaration to deport him to Canada only.

Maureen Silcoff, president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, says human rights in Nicaragua are at a crisis point and last year Canada granted asylum to 90 per cent or 155 of the 171 Nicaraguan refugee claimants here.

“This request for refugee protection went off the rails,” Silcoff said. “He came to the Canadian border at Door A instead of Door B, so instead of having his protection needs assessed in Canada based on his wife being here, he is now caught in a web of detention and removal in the U.S.

“There has to be a better way. Canada Border Services Agency turned him away and handed him over to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who jailed him and scheduled him for deportation, even though Canada said he could come back.”

Canada Border Services Agency did not respond the Star’s request for comment.

“The U.S. court was sympathetic and said a political branch of the government could deal with the problem,” she said. “Officials must pull the plug on his removal and allow him to come to Canada. The time to act is now, before it’s too late.”

 

 

After 24 years, a Roma Refugee's Happy Victory and Request for Support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy News! And a request for support. 

 

We are thrilled to say that after living in Canada for 24 years in the shadows without status, an intensive campaign has finally won permanent resident status for Roksana Hajrizi, a tireless Roma refugee rights activist who led the campaign to get her Mama Celina granted PR status as well. 

 

While this is good news, as always with Canadian immigration, it is one step forward, two steps to the side or back. In June, 2020, despite the significant risk to him, Roksana Hajrizi's father was wrongfully deported after living here for 23 years. As he awaits a possible return to Canada under a sponsorship (another lengthy process), he must live in the face of the virulent anti-Roma racism in Eastern Europe, where finding housing and employment is impossible. 

 

The Rural Refugee Rights Network is collecting donations to assist Roksana and her father with some of those expenses. Imagine living in a country where your identity prevents you from obtaining the most essential basics to survive. That is where her father is trying to survive now. 

 

If you can contribute something, anything, please send an etransfer to tasc@web.ca or a cheque to Homes not Bombs at 2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052, Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7 (memo: Roksana). Meantime, congratulations to Roksana!