Story of one asylum-seeker
A young man from Guinea who’s been here for six years will be deported back home where he’s at risk of attack or murder. This underlines the fact that SPVM cops will check people’s immigration status (how does racial profiling fit into this?) and call the feds if there’s any irregularity, and why Valérie Plante was wise not to make any rash claims this is a sanctuary city.
Ephraim 09:10 on 2018-12-18 Permalink
Wow… what a confusing article. Doesn’t say if and when he applied for asylum and the status of his refugee claim… so, it’s basically one side of a story. If he was turned down, the reason? Have the authorities sought any assurances from Guinea? Why is he seeking asylum? Guinea isn’t really known for having a lot of refugee claimants. There must be much more to the story.
SMD 11:37 on 2018-12-18 Permalink
The answers to most of your questions are in the article, if you read it carefully. He fled to Canada as a child, fearing for his life. His application for refugee status was rejected in 2015. Guinea is known for its political instability and rogue police and military. How one could justify a child living in contant fear of deportation I can’t imagine, especially, as he says, “If you deport me, you might as well just kill me.”
Ephraim 11:49 on 2018-12-18 Permalink
Ah, but he had an appeal, but didn’t think it was important enough to keep his address up to date and missed it. He was allowed to stay for the appeal…. which many people don’t even get. So why didn’t he think it was important enough to prove his point to the refugee board?
Yes, it’s known for instability, but less so now and the government is constantly moving towards stability and control of the rogue police. A lot of places are unstable, doesn’t mean that you get refugee status for that reason. That’s the point of the refugee board.
Blork 12:36 on 2018-12-18 Permalink
The problem with this article is that it isn’t about the Guinean guy (Omar) and his situation; the article is about the idea of Montreal as a sanctuary city. Omar (despite his being in the headline, etc.) is basically just an example case that serves the true topic of the article. As such, the article is slim on specifics regarding Omar himself.
For example, it’s unclear what the perceived threat is. There is no mention of Omar being an ethnic minority or a member of some other oppressed group (sexual orientation, political views, etc.) The only real threat seems to be that his step mother doesn’t like him and she knows some uniformed thugs, and he says he’s afraid she will use those thugs to hurt or kill him.
That makes it a domestic dispute. Since Omar already went through the refugee process, and he was rejected, it’s fair to wonder why he was rejected. The article doesn’t say why, but perhaps it was because he couldn’t prove that this (apparently) domestic dispute represented a genuine threat.
I won’t say any more about it because of the dearth of facts, other than to point out what a sketchy and lame article this is, which carries no more credibility (in my eyes) than some blog post by some random nameless blogger.
SMD 21:59 on 2018-12-28 Permalink
Omar was deported last week. The CBSA chartered an entire plane to deport a young man who came here fleeing for his life, learned the language, and studied and worked hard. This is the seventh time they have done this, and it has cost the state $821,157 total so far.