Canada suspends deportation of Quebec mother and her 3 children after UN intervention

The federal government suspended the deportation of a mother and her three children living in Trois-Rivières, Que., shortly after the United Nations Human Rights Commission requested it.

Arlyn Huilar and her three children, ages six, nine and 11, were due to be deported to the Philippines on Tuesday. Her husband and their father, David Ajibade, are still in Nigeria, where he was deported late last month.

On Sunday, when Huilar and the children returned home from church attendance, they learned that the Canada Border Services Agency had canceled their deportation pending a ruling on whether they can become permanent Canadian residents on humanitarian grounds.

“It was a shock and [the kids] were jumping for joy,” Huilar told CBC on the phone Monday.

The family’s lawyer, Sabrina Kosseim, submitted a request to the UN Human Rights Committee to intervene in the family’s case immediately after Ajibade was deported on June 28.

The commission informed her last week that they had accepted her request and would ask Canada to postpone the deportation of Huilar and the children.

“It is clear that in this case there are threats to fundamental rights,” Kosseim said, namely the children’s physical and mental health rights.

The family had applied for refugee status in 2019, but was rejected last year. Huilar is from the Philippines and Ajibade is from Nigeria.

The couple met online and got married in Nigeria in 2009. Their children faced racism and hostility in the Philippines, but narrowly escaped being kidnapped in Nigeria, Kosseim said.

The family’s hopes of finding a safe haven in Canada ended this spring when the CBSA ordered their deportation to two different continents.

Hours before Carlsen, the youngest child, was to be deported to Nigeria with his father — while the rest of the family was sent to the Philippines — a federal judge ruled that he could not be separated from his two older siblings. mother.

‘It’s not quite over yet’

Ajibade was then deported alone to his home country and the deportation of Huilar and their children was delayed.

Kosseim had argued in court that separating a six-year-old from his older siblings, in addition to separating the family as a whole, was unusually cruel.

In an interview on Monday, the lawyer said Ajibade was struggling without his family.

“Obviously he is very relieved for them that they can stay in Canada for the time being. But the fact remains that the family is still separated now. It is a family that has always been united, has always been together. So we are hoping that they will be reunited before too long,” said Kosseim.

Huilar, Ajibade and their children arrived in Canada via Roxham Road in May 2019 and soon settled in Trois-Rivières, a city 130 kilometers east of Montreal. While waiting for news of their refugee claim, the parents shifted their jobs. They made friends at their local church and the children went to French school.

An engineer by training who worked as a foreman in Quebec, Ajibade said Trois-Rivières was the first place the family felt at home. In March they applied for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds.

But those applications can take two years to process, and they were still waiting when Ajibade was deported to Nigeria last month.

“I know it’s not quite over yet, but for me it’s an ounce of opportunity and hope and worth holding on to,” said Huilar.

The federal government did not immediately respond to CBC News’ requests for comment ahead of Monday’s release.