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Immigration
minister to be tackled on the case of the two brothers
Lebanon-born
Palestinian faces deportation while his brother is allowed to stay
Monday, November
29, 2004
Federal
Immigration Minister Judy Sgro will be asked today to to prevent the
deportation tomorrow of Ahmad Naffa, a 24-year old man without a country
who was caught after living illegally in Montreal for the past three
years.
If
she doesn't, Sgro will be hard pressed to explain why two seemingly
identical claims for refugee status from two brothers in similar
circumstances were handled differently.
Naffa's
older brother, Mohamed, 26, who arrived in
Canada
from
Sweden
on a forged passport
two years ago, has been allowed to stay.
Both
brothers were born in Ein El-Hilweh refugee camp in
Saida
,
Lebanon
, and as Palestinians
living in
Lebanon
they are considered
stateless.
Naffa
was arrested in
Montreal
last Tuesday after
he was caught trying to ride the metro without paying the fare.
He
was turned over to immigration authorities, who ordered him deported
tomorrow.
If
he is deported, Naffa claims he will be forced to live in extreme poverty
and face persecution in
Lebanon
.
"I
feel it's like, the end of my future, like I am an innocent man who has
been condemned to prison," Naffa told The Gazette during an interview
late yesterday at the immigration detention centre in
Laval
where he is being
held. "I've committed no crime."
He
travelled to the
United States
on a student visa in
February 2000, then slipped into
Canada
with $200 in his
pocket. He asked for refugee status.
His
claim wasn't heard until after the terrorist attacks on
Sept. 11, 2001
, and he was turned
down. He then went into hiding, working in fast-food restaurants.
Naffa
said that because he's being shipped back to
Lebanon
through the
United States
he fears he could be
detained in the
U.S.
indefinitely.
"I
don't have citizenship in
Lebanon
. Here, I have my
education now. I want to be a nurse. I have been learning French.
"My
friends from the refugee camp have all been allowed to stay in
Canada
. My brother has been
allowed to stay, but I have to go back. It's hopeless. It doesn't make any
sense. I don't know what's going to happen to me."
As
he spoke, about 30 members of a group called the Coalition against the
Deportation of Palestinian Refugees demonstrated outside in the cold rain
shouting: "No Borders, No Nations, Stop the Deportations."
Amir
Khadir, a member of the Union des forces progressistes, said the Naffa
case represents an opportunity for the Canadian government to come up with
a coherent policy on Palestinian refugees.
"We
need to examine the whole process to determine how two different
immigration officers, considering two identical applications from two
brothers, can arrive at two totally different arbitrary decisions. The
process of appeal has been denied. There is no way to question the
decision. It's ridiculous."
Khadir
suggested Naffa might have had a more favourable result if he wanted to
work in a strip club in a bar in
Montreal
- a reference to
Sgro's recent decision to give a work visa and temporary residency to a
Romanian stripper on "humanitarian grounds."
ahustak@thegazette.canwest.com
© The
Gazette (
Montreal
)
2004
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