Illegal Immigrants
Can't say I'm too awfully thrilled with the decision of Canada's immigration authority to return a couple originally from Pakistan back to that country. They've lived for ten years in Canada as refugees, having applied for status back in 2000. They will be returned to a country torn by vicious religious sectarian violence, as the government of Pakistan attempts to control the ascendancy of fanatical Islamists, Pakistani Taliban.
Mohammud and Seema Sabir Sheikh are accused of having misled Immigration Canada by not reporting that they had, before seeking refugee status in Canada, moved back and forth from Pakistan to Dubai, trying to find a safe haven for themselves. As Pakistanis, even though they're Muslim, they could not find defining status in Dubai.
They had few other options, although they had reached Canada via the United States, before the current 'country of first asylum' agreement between Canada and the U.S. had been signed. They are the parents of three grown children, and a fourth, a five-year-old girl, born in Canada. Their older children have been granted status in Canada.
But because the former Pakistani husband of their older daughter had contacted Canadian immigration authorities, (in an obvious attempt to to punish the family), to inform that they had sought status first in Dubai, they are held to have lied on their application. "They were going back and forth between Dubai and Pakistan. It's impossible to get status in Dubai so what are their options?"
This, from a lawyer representing the family. The distraught parents, being hauled off by immigration officers who had arrived unannounced at their Montreal apartment, had to make a snap decision about their youngest child. To remove her with them from Canada, or to leave her in the care of her 26-year-old sister and 21-year-old brother. The child has been left with her older siblings.
The deportation order brought against the parents is clearly brutally unjust. There are times when personal intervention of the Minister is required, and this appears to be one of those times. Humanitarian grounds should be evoked and respected, and the family re-unified.
Mohammud and Seema Sabir Sheikh are accused of having misled Immigration Canada by not reporting that they had, before seeking refugee status in Canada, moved back and forth from Pakistan to Dubai, trying to find a safe haven for themselves. As Pakistanis, even though they're Muslim, they could not find defining status in Dubai.
They had few other options, although they had reached Canada via the United States, before the current 'country of first asylum' agreement between Canada and the U.S. had been signed. They are the parents of three grown children, and a fourth, a five-year-old girl, born in Canada. Their older children have been granted status in Canada.
But because the former Pakistani husband of their older daughter had contacted Canadian immigration authorities, (in an obvious attempt to to punish the family), to inform that they had sought status first in Dubai, they are held to have lied on their application. "They were going back and forth between Dubai and Pakistan. It's impossible to get status in Dubai so what are their options?"
This, from a lawyer representing the family. The distraught parents, being hauled off by immigration officers who had arrived unannounced at their Montreal apartment, had to make a snap decision about their youngest child. To remove her with them from Canada, or to leave her in the care of her 26-year-old sister and 21-year-old brother. The child has been left with her older siblings.
The deportation order brought against the parents is clearly brutally unjust. There are times when personal intervention of the Minister is required, and this appears to be one of those times. Humanitarian grounds should be evoked and respected, and the family re-unified.
Labels: Government of Canada, Justice
posted by Pieface | 7:36 PM
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