Abdelkader Belaouni has been living in church sanctuary in Montreal since 1 January 2006.
Abdelkader had begun to establish a secure, dignified and autonomous life for himself in Montreal, after fleeing the civil war in Algeria, and then the racist backlash in post Sept. 11th USA.
Since January 5th 2006, Abdelkader has been under an order of deportation from Canada. For Abdelkader, deportation would mean losing that dignity, autonomy and security which he has worked hard to achieve.
He would be deported first to the US, where there is a very high risk of detention pending deportation back to Algeria. As a blind, Arab, Muslim man, he would be particularly vulnerable in detention. From the United States, he would be deported to Algeria, to a situation of uncertainty and insecurity.
Algeria
Abdelkader is 40 years old, and lived in Algeria until 1996. Abdelkader lost his vision in 1992, at the age of 25. He nevertheless was able to earn his living in his family’s grocery store in the city of Oran, Algeria, with his younger brothers working for him.
The war ultimately took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and created thousands of refugees, many of whom are in Montreal today. There were direct repercussions for Abdelkader, as people close to him were subject to repression during the conflict.
When, in July 1996, members of one of the armed groups visited his family grocery store and told him he had to help pay for their fight or be killed, he fled the country.
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United States
Abdelkader settled in New York, first living in a shelter and then eventually supporting himself by selling phone cards.
In 1999, he won the “green card lottery” which allowed him to apply for a green card. In 2000, he did apply and thus believed he was on his way to regularising his status in the United States. However, what Kader did not know, and what he was not told by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS), is that people who are living in the U.S. without legal status are not eligible to receive a green card. Thus, while the INS allowed him to apply, and collected the fees for so doing, Kader in fact never would have received a green card.
At that point, the events of 11 September 2001 made the situation more unstable for Abdelkader. It brought in its wake a wave of racist attacks against Arabs and Muslims. One week after September 11th, for the first time, he was harassed by a police officer at his telephone card table in the street. Shortly after, someone attempted to burn down a mosque with a kerosene bomb in Abdelkader's neighborhood.
In December 2002, the INS produced a list of 30 countries, all except one with Muslim majorities. All men over 16 years old who had citizenships from those countries were told to report for “special registration”. Ultimately, 80% of those who were called in for "special registration" were deported. Unfortunately for Abdelkader, Algeria was on the list.
Abdelkader was called in for his first interview in December 2002. He participated in two interviews, in a process that he found humiliating, confusing, and stressful. His passport was confiscated during the first interview and not returned to him. He was then placed in deportation hearings, because he was non-status. During his first hearing, he was shocked when a judge told him that he did not know of the whereabouts of his passport.
Abdelkader was given a date for a second hearing, but, encouraged by a Canadian friend, chose instead to flee the tension and uncertainty for Canada, where he hoped to find a more welcoming and secure atmosphere.
Because he did not show up to the second hearing, a deportation order was issued for him in September 2003 in the US.
Canada
Since his arrival in March 2003, Abdelkader has worked to establish a secure and independent life for himself.
He now speaks French fluently and has established a very strong network of friends and contacts.
Abdelkader took many steps to find paid employment; for example, registering at a job bank and taking a mobility course for the blind at the Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille. However, he has faced the double barrier of being blind in a sighted society (the unemployment rate for the blind is very high in Canada, as high as 90% according to the Canadian Federation of the Blind) and being denied access to programmes meant to equalise opportunities for the blind, because he is non-status.
Despite the obstacles, Abdelkader was a dedicated volunteer with the Multi-Ethnic Association for the Integration of the Handicapped of Quebec (AMEIPH), where he served as a receptionist from January 2005 until December 2005. He contributed to other community associations in Point St. Charles, such as Welfare Rights, and in the refugee rights network Solidarity across borders.
Struggle for Status
Abdelkader applied for refugee status when he entered Canada in March 2003.
His refugee claim was rejected by the Immigrant and Refugee Board (IRB) on January 21st, 2004. The rejection made much of minor inconsistencies in Abdelkader’s account in his application form and his interview when he arrived at the border, speaking broken French and having difficulty with the Quebecois accent, in a state of high stress, during an interview which lasted barely five minutes without an interpreter.
It is important to note that Canadian refugee case law requires that, in situations where there are such inconsistencies, the Commission must nevertheless objectively examine the rest of the evidence to determine whether there is nevertheless a well-founded fear of persecution (Seevaratnam, Sukunamari v. M.C.I). This does not appear to have been done in Abdelkader’s case.
Abdelkader requested leave for a judicial review, but this was not accepted. Because the government has failed to implement the appeal process required by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (2002), Abdelkader’s fate thus rested essentially in the hands of one individual, the IRB commissioner.
The commissioner presiding in Abdelkader’s refugee hearing was Laurier Thibault, who accepted one single claimant in a two year period – meaning he has nearly a 100% refusal rate.
It is also worth noting that Abdelkader arrived in Canada mere months after the closure of a regularization programme for non-status Algerians in Quebec. Hundreds of non-status Algerians, who had been living in Quebec under a moratorium on deportations to war-torn Algeria, received citizenship under this programme. If Abdelkader had originally emigrated to Canada instead of the United States, he would almost certainly now have his status.
In February and March 2005, Abdelkader submitted requests for a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) and a Humanitarian and Compassionate claim (H&C). Both were refused on 24 October 2005 by the same immigration officer. In refusing Kader’s humanitarian application, the Officer relied primarily on two ‘facts’ - that Kader has no family in Canada and that he was not working. This assessment ignored the tight-knit network of friends and supporters that Kader does have in Canada, all of the structural barriers that he faced in finding employment, and the fact that Kader contributed to society through other means, such as volunteer work, when denied access to paid employment.
The two refusals relied on an assessment that there had been a general improvement in the situation in Algeria. However, numerous reports document the persistent climate of insecurity in Algeria, punctuated by massacres and attacks. The decisions moreover did not acknowledge the fact that a blind man is particularly vulnerable in such situations.
The refusals also refer to a national programme for the blind in Algeria, citing a newspaper article announcing the programme as evidence. However, several reports document a general tendency of the Algerian government to fail to implement such promises at the practical level (Amnesty International, Index AI : MDE 28/008/2003).
The Ligue des droits et libertés (Quebec Civil Liberties Union) later studied the refusal and concluded that its failure to consider the structural barriers that Abdelkader faces in finding employment and accessing training programmes is discriminatory and a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Committee to Aid Refugees, which coordinates refugee protection work for the Table de Concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI), concluded that he, "would suffer 'unusual and excessive' hardship if obliged to leave Canada."
Sanctuary
On 1 January 2006, Abdelkader entered into sanctuary in St. Gabriel’s Church in his own neighbourhood of Point St. Charles, publicly announcing his intention to defy his deportation order.
Abdelkader has a great deal of support for his struggle for status in Canada.
A group of five people is prepared to sponsor him financially until he is self-supporting.
He has the active support of many organizations and individuals in his neighbourhood, including the Table de concertation Action Gardien (a coalition of community organizations), the community health clinic, the legal aid clinic of Point St. Charles and Little Burgundy, Saint Columba House, and his Member of Parliament, Mr. Thierry St-Cyr.
He also has the support of human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, the Committee to Aid Refugees, the Confederation of Organisations of Handicapped People in Quebec (COPHAN), and the Ligue des droits et libertés.
National organizations such as the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and the United Church of Canada are supporting him.
Members of Parliament from all parties, including the Chair of the Immigration Standing Committee, Mr. Norman Doyle (a Conservative member), and the Bloc , NDP and Liberal immigration critics, have also lent their support.
The Minister did not respond. Instead, Kader received a second refusal to be accepted as a permanent resident on humanitarian grounds, in another flawed decision by Immigration Canada, this time involving several procedural irregularities.
The new decision trivialized the trauma that a third uprooting would represent for Abdelkader and ignored the considerable success he has had integrating into Quebec society. The decision gave no weight to the massive outpouring of public and civil society support, merely noting the letters received from over 50 civil society organizations, Members of Parliament and individuals. The five-person financial sponsorship was dismissed without consideration. The important concerns about discrimination were not engaged. The assessment of risk once again failed to take account of the fact that he is blind.
This led some refugee rights groups and sanctuary advocates to fear that the current government is closing the door on sanctuary as a last resort for those seeking basic security, dignity and opportunity in Canada.
Meanwhile, community support for Kader has only continued to build. In all, hundreds organisations and thousands of individuals have intervened with the Minister of Immigration in support of Mr. Belaouni's claim: signing petitions; sending postcards; writing letters; participating in meetings with Parliamentarians, delegations to Ottawa, press conferences, and pickets; and organizing a community march.
In May 2007, as Abdelkader reached his 500th day in sanctuary, over 70 organizations and networks – representing some 250 organizations operating in broadly diverse sectors in Quebec – sent an open letter to Immigration Minister Diane Finley, supporting status for Abdelkader and requesting an urgent meeting to discuss a solution. The letter was followed by a press conference in Parliament, supported by the NDP and Bloc Quebecois. To date, there has been no response.
Even within the confines of a church, Kader has found ways of giving back to the community, including broadcasting his own monthly community radio show live from the church. He keeps active, giving Arabic lessons, taking piano lessons, learning massage therapy, and beginning to use a blind-assisted computer. But the days remain very long and Kader is eager for the freedom to return to full participation in his community.
What Deportation Would Mean
If he is deported, Abdelkader would be sent first to the United States (his port of entry into Canada). It is probable that he would detained because he fled to Canada before attending the last scheduled INS hearing. Without the means to post bail, he could be in detention for an extended period of time, pending deportation. This would carry not only psychological but physical risk. He would be particularly vulnerable in American detention, because of his blindness, because he is Arab and Muslim, and because he suffers from diabetes.
Because U.S. authorities issued a deportation order against Kader in September 2003, it is certain that he will be deported to Algeria from the U.S. The situation in Algeria is still one in which there are attacks and civilian deaths; a situation in which a blind man is particularly vulnerable and would not be able to find security. Services for the blind are not well-developed in Algeria, and the level of independence and economic security that he would be able to establish in Quebec could not be achieved.
Abdelkader was on his way to establishing a secure, independent life of dignity in Quebec within a strong community and network of friends. It is only his confinement to a church that prevents him from taking his full place in society and establishing what he has been seeking – freedom from fear and dignity, which are no more than the rights of every human being.
Everything he has worked to achieve would be destroyed if Abdelkader were pointlessly uprooted for a third time.
Source : http://www.soutienpourkader.net/
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