The Romanian family found dead in Akwesasne had twice requested asylum in Canada. They had already been apprehended twice by US authorities while trying to reach relatives in the United States.
Florin Iordache, 28, his wife Cristina Monalisa Zenaida Iordache, and their very young children are among the eight bodies recovered last week from Akwesasne. Tuesday, The duty spoke with their lawyer Peter Ivanyi, who then confirmed that this family died on the same day as the date of their planned deportation. Nothing in the already public documents nor in the testimony of their lawyer indicated until then that they had been intercepted in the United States and detained by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
New elements now make it possible to grasp a much more complex and winding immigration story.
The Iordache family was first sent back to Romania, after being intercepted in the United States in August 2018, two months after they filed for asylum in Canada. They then returned via Toronto in 2020 and were apprehended again in September 2021 south of the border in Washington State on the west coast.
This time the US authorities handed them over to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) rather than deporting them to Romania, due to pandemic measures in effect.
While his wife is seven months pregnant, Florin Iordache is being held in an immigration detention center in Vancouver from late September 2021 until October 22, 2021. The Agency can detain an immigrant if there are grounds to believe that the person will not show up for a hearing or a removal appointment.
When an immigrant is detained, there is a mechanism for reviewing these grounds for detention. It is in these documents that we learn more about this Romanian family who repeatedly risked their personal safety while trying to build a new life.
“I could believe that a person arrives in the United States by accident once, but not twice as you did”, writes in particular the representative of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). Mr. Iordache had pleaded that he had crossed the border by mistake after a stay near Vancouver, because he had “little education” and did not know how to use his GPS.
His lawyer defends himself
Despite questions from DutyPeter Ivanyi did not shed any light on their entire immigration journey during a first interview.
He denies having wanted to present an incomplete account and maintains that the facts presented were true and accurate: “It does not change all the underlying facts”, he insists during a second interview.
The Toronto lawyer represented the couple for their asylum application filed in 2018, the one that ran until 2021. The second asylum application, filed in 2020, was canceled because it is impossible to make such a request twice. He then went through the Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) process in 2022, but between the two he says he “had no contact”.
Amir Akhtar, the name of an immigration consultant with a valid permit, is listed in black and white in official IRB documents. Reached by telephone, he refused to identify himself as the Iordache lawyer, objecting to “reasons of confidentiality”.
One of the last remedies before deportation, PRRA, was assessed “solely on the basis of the circumstances in Romania for Roma”, says Ms.e Ivanyi. This review does not judge “whether you have made good or bad decisions”, but rather whether “your family would be at risk in your country of origin”.
It was the “desperation” to have a status in Canada that pushed them towards death, he repeats: “They are not criminals. Why would anyone board a small boat with eight people in choppy waters in freezing temperatures, unless they had a valid reason for not wanting to return [en Roumanie] ? “, he illustrates.
Florin Iordache’s two brothers were already in the United States and they were “their only support”.
In order to be able to return from Romania to Canada after their first deportation, the couple married in 2020. The father of the family then took his wife’s legal name to obtain his passport.