More than fifty people gathered Friday in front of the Montreal offices of Immigration Minister Marc Miller in support of a Nigerian family of “guardian angels” who are preparing to be deported on April 5, in the middle of the year school.
After having their asylum application refused by the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Adegboyes, who have lived here for more than six years, have exhausted all their appeals to avoid being returned to Nigeria. The family, which is Christian, in this country where the faithful of this religion are highly persecuted, says they have received serious threats.
In this important mobilization, elected officials and members of civil society asked Minister Miller to cancel the removal and issue a temporary residence permit, while waiting for the family’s request for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds to be studied.
Arriving as an asylum seeker with only one child in 2017 – two have been born in Canada since then – Deborah Adegboye and her husband worked as “essential workers” during the pandemic, before becoming beneficiary attendants. For two years, the couple has worked from home with severely disabled clients.
“Such a large mobilization, we don’t see that every day. It’s because it’s an endearing family, which has a sustained social network, and which makes a difference in the lives of Quebecers,” said the solidarity MP for Saint-Henri-Saint-Anne, Guillaume Cliche. -Rivard. “There is no reason to let them go. We should never have made it this far. But there is still a little time left and we are asking the Quebec government to pressure the federal government so that it stays. »
He also asks the CAQ government to obtain from Ottawa the power to suspend an expulsion when justified. “Quebec should be able to say to the federal government “we need this person. She’s not leaving,” he argued. “If the minister [de l’Immigration] Christine Fréchette endorses the nationalism of the CAQ, may she ask for this power from the federal government! »
Coming to support the cause, Alexandre Boulerice, deputy leader of the NDP and MP for Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie, finds it “appalling” that Canada is considering expelling a mother who works with her husband in the health sector and who is learning French, and whose three children are well integrated into school. “To think about deporting a person like that, both my arms fell off. We need her, he said. If we kick Deborah out, what kind of immigrants do we want to have? »
“You need us”
Deborah Adegboye promises to continue to “contribute”. “I don’t want to lose my patients and the people I help. They need us, you need us, my husband and me,” she told Duty, very moved. “We will do our best. And we are going to give back to Quebec,” she added, specifying that she is in no way interested in moving to another province.
For her and her three children who learn French – the two youngest have never set foot in Nigeria – their life is here. “My oldest son [de bientôt 9 ans] tells me every day “have we been accepted? Were we accepted?” He doesn’t want to go away and lose his friends. »
Mme Adegboye is very worried about all the members of her family in Nigeria whom she helps financially and who will lose everything if she leaves Canada. “We are ambassadors of our family. We help our nephews and nieces, we pay the health bills of our sick loved ones… Returning would mean ending these lives too. »
Some organizations have raised the irony of the date of deportation — the night of April 4 to 5 — coinciding with Canadian Refugee Rights Day which occurs every April 5. Nearly 40 years ago, a Supreme Court ruling ruled that the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protected the fundamental rights of refugees.
Broken promise
France-Isabelle Langlois, general director of Amnesty International Francophone Canada, deplores that the federal government has not kept its promises to all people with precarious status who worked, particularly in health, during the pandemic. “What is shocking about this story is that they are guardian angels. We were given to understand that they would be received,” she said.
According to the head of immigration for the Bloc Québécois, Alexis Duceppe-Brunelle, the federal Department of Immigration is acting “inhumanely” and asking the minister “to use his discretionary power to prevent such a tragedy from happening.” . »
Asked on the sidelines of a press conference on Thursday, Marc Miller refrained from commenting on a confidential file but confirmed that his team was looking into the case. “Sometimes there are facts that you are not aware of that I have to analyze and that my team has to analyze. You will see the results in the coming days. »
With Benoit Valois-Nadeau