Citizens and elected officials are mobilizing to counter the return to Nigeria of a couple of beneficiary attendants who are well integrated into their community.
Deborah Adegboye, her husband and their three children are subject to deportation proceedings back to their country of origin. The asylum seeker couple arrived in Quebec in 2017 via Roxham Road.
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They have been working for several years as home care workers for autistic clients in Pierrefonds. Their three children attend school and speak French.
Several citizens and elected officials gathered Friday in front of the constituency office of federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller to denounce the situation.
“Seriously, we cannot afford to do without Deborah and all these hundreds of workers who, every morning, are there to help Quebecers,” laments the deputy leader of the New Democratic Party, Alexandre Boulerice.
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The spokesperson for Québec solidaire on immigration, francization and integration, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, agrees.
“How can we afford to lose workers like that, when there is no one who will take over?” he asks.
A family friend says the family’s dismissal is “surreal”. “Children, their life is here in Canada, it’s not in Nigeria. It’s just inhumane,” says Olivia Viveros.
Unless the situation changes, the family will have to leave the country on April 5.
– With information from Elizabeth Laplante