Six Haitian orphans who lost their parents in the earthquake in 2010 have been waiting for ten years to be reunited with their families in Canada. And since the last update of the file in 2014, it is radio silence on the part of Immigration Canada, which has still not rendered a decision.
“Even animals are not treated like that”, drops Marie Michelle Jean Louis, who piloted the sponsorship file on behalf of her octogenarian mother. On the phone, this trained nurse who owns a convenience store in Joliette struggles to contain her dismay at these extraordinary delays in bringing in her cousins. “What angers me is that Canada has moved quickly to welcome refugees from Afghanistan. But us, it has dragged on for all these years, ”she laments. “We can no longer keep these children waiting. It’s not human. “
Gordon, Raymond, Charlson, Jessica, Woodchina and Kétine Jean Laurent were all minors when the earthquake claimed the lives of their parents on January 12, 2010. The oldest was 14 years old and the youngest was just a few years old. days. They had no relatives in Haiti, only this aunt, Liane Jean Laurent, who lived in Ontario and whom they had never seen.
Touched by their sad fate, Mme Jean Laurent files in 2011 a request for family reunification for the children of his brother. In this country in ruins, the investigation to establish their identity and the steps to obtain the precious documents will end up costing the family more than 10,000 US dollars. She also sends money to the children through a neighbor who lives in a makeshift shelter and takes care of them.
The following year, in 2012, Liane Jean Laurent and her daughter Marie Michelle went to Haiti to meet the children. “The little one would cling to me and say ‘mommy, mommy’. It hurt my heart, ”says Liane Jean Laurent, that The duty met another of her daughters in Repentigny at Monique’s. “We couldn’t take them. “
In 2013, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) informed the family that the file was complete and that they could finally move forward. But a year later, the neighbor who took care of the children died, and they were sent to an orphanage.
Faced with this extremely vulnerable situation, Mr.me Jean Louis urges Immigration Canada to speed up processing. In an email dated May 2, 2014, he was told that since the file is “complex”, it has been assigned to a special unit at the Mississauga processing center in Ontario and that the time limits no longer apply. “We’ve just checked the bound shelf and see seven files in front of your six, so please continue to wait.” “
The following month Immigration Canada sends a request for further supporting documents, and this is the last written communication the family will receive. The required documents were sent – and received – a few months later. After ? Over the past seven years, Mme Jean Louis at the Immigration Canada call center have always encountered the same unsatisfactory response from an officer: “The case is ongoing. “
A tablet file?
On August 14, while the country was in turmoil since the assassination of its president, another deadly earthquake shook the pearl of the West Indies. He also shattered what was left of patience from the family, who hired a lawyer. His efforts revealed that far from having made its way to a visa office at the Canadian embassy in Haiti, the file had never left the processing center in Mississauga. “It was as if the sky had just fallen on our heads. We had waited all this time, spent a lot of money and what had they done? Nothing ! »Indignant Marie Michelle Jean Louis.
According to lawyer Patricia Gamliel, the file could well have fallen “between the cracks”. “That’s what I suspect. Someone may have put it aside, I don’t have any information. But of course he was not treated, ”she said.
The president of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers maintains that such a delay is not “normal”. “But unfortunately, I don’t think it’s an isolated case, there are others,” says Stéphanie Valois. “With IRCC, it’s disaster after disaster. “
She notes that some family reunification cases drag on without the delays being able to be explained. “It’s really hard to follow up. Even for me who am a lawyer, ”she emphasizes. According to her, people take their troubles patiently because they trust the system. “They do not imagine that in Canada a file can be lost. “
As for the call center agents, they do not provide reliable information, says Mr.e Valois. “I don’t know what they have access to, but we never have clear answers. I never call there, ”she said.
IRCC was unable to provide the To have to average waiting times for family reunification. The ministry has also indicated that it will not comment on any particular case, for reasons of privacy protection. The cabinet of Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino refrained from commenting for the same reasons, adding however that “such a long delay is not normal, although complex cases can often take longer”.
Urgency and hope
According to Me Gamliel, IRCC is currently working to move the file forward. “When they noticed the problem, they still made efforts to help us, knowing that the children are in the streets, that they live in tents and that there are risks to living in Haiti like this. the present time, ”she argued.
A few years ago, when the elders came of age, the six children lived together outside the orphanage, in great poverty. Since then, despite the money the family sends them through a friend, they are still surviving. “They only eat every other day. Finding water is a daily struggle, ”sighs Marie Michelle Jean Louis, recalling that there is an emergency. “One of the girls was almost raped by a gang that kidnapped her. “
Mme Jean Louis is also worried about the “irreparable consequences” that this waiting has caused. “As a pediatric nurse, I know that trauma like this never goes away,” she says. “The youngest was a year old when we applied for it. But she is now 11 years old! “
Their lawyer, Patricia Gamliel, asked that these children be granted permanent resident status now, invoking section 25 of the Immigration Act, which gives this power to the Minister “if he considers that there are humanitarian concerns relating to abroad justify it, taking into account the best interests of the child directly affected ”. She is also calling for temporary visas to be issued to children so that they can be safe in Canada while the process is completed.
Faced with the chaos that currently reigns in this country on the verge of civil war, Liane Jean Laurent and her daughters do not want to lose hope of seeing the children arrive by Christmas. “I want to make a party with them, to take them ”, says Mme Jean Laurent, making the gesture of hugging someone. With a tender gaze, his daughter Monique nods. “We want to cajole them, give them gifts. We want them to understand that even if they have only experienced misfortune so far, their life is not going to end there. “