Montreal Pakistani Couple Deported

A Montreal Pakistani couple and their Canadian-born kids who fear they’ll be harmed if returned to their native country have been denied a stay of deportation.
Naveed Akram Chaudhary and his wife Safia are slated for removal on Sept. 12 but were hoping the Federal Court would step in to protect their three children, aged seven, six and four.
This will be the second case of removal of a Pakistani couple from Canada in as many months. The couple said they belong to the minority Shia sect and face threats from Sunni fundamentalists in Pakistan.
They said they were forced to seek refuge in Canada after they were allegedly targeted by the Sipah-e-Sahaba radical group.
Just two months back, another Montreal-based Pakistani couple was deported after losing their eight-year battle to stay in Canada. Since they had entered Canada from the US, Sabir Mohammed Sheikh and his wife Seema were handed over to US authorities to be sent back to Pakistan.
Chaudhry’s lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, said Monday that the decision is a violation of the children’s rights.
“We raised really strongly the question of children’s rights and the lack of respect for those rights in Pakistan — health problems, education problems,” Chaudhry’s lawyer said, noting one child has special needs and requires extra attention at school.
“A lot of our evidence was on the best interests of the children.”
Istvanffy claimed the ruling ignores a 1999 Supreme Court decision requiring close attention be paid to the needs of children in immigration cases because their rights are central to humanitarian values in Canada.
“This is what they’re not respecting,” he said. “They’re not respecting fundamental family rights and children’s rights.”
The couple, who are minority Shia Muslims, say they’ve been threatened by Sunni fundamentalist groups operating in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Chaudhary has said he was directly targeted by Sipah-e-Sahaba — deemed “a radical sectarian group with strongholds in the central province of Punjab” in a 2005 report published by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
A recent Human Rights Watch report suggests that at least 4,000 people, largely minority Shia , have died as a result of the sectarian hostility in the last 30 years.
The couple even blame militants for the disappearance of their eldest son, then 14, in Pakistan in November 2006.
Chaudhary’s cousin, Azeem Nazir, said the family is terrified of returning to Pakistan.
“They know when they go back they’ll be on the hit-list for a targeted killing,” Nazir said.
“(Safia) says she’s already lost her eldest son and now the three kids she had here will end up the same.”
The Federal Court dismissed Chaudhary’s stay of deportation based on the initial denial of their first refugee claim on humanitarian and compassionate grounds in 2007, and due to an ongoing pre-removal risk assessment evaluating the risks faced by refugee claimant if they return to their native countries.
“The risks they would allegedly face if removed to Pakistan have already been considered and rejected,” wrote Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny in his judgement.
“Similarly, the best interests of their Canadian-born children have already been assessed, and the applicants have not submitted any new evidence that would substantiate a reversal of the decision reached by the Immigration Officer.”
But Istvanffy argued that new evidence does exists to support their claims, including police and medical reports relating to alleged attacks against Chaudhary before he fled to Canada.
“Naveed is being looked for by some of the worst terrorists in the world,” Istvanffy said. “The level of the evidence we have is rock solid on every point.”
The family has received a flood of support from their community, even a letter from federal Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.
Istvanffy said the next step was petitioning the Minister of Immigration and the Minister of Public Safety directly.
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada was unavailable for comment on Monday.
The couple came to Canada in 2002 and Chaudhary has since established himself in the city’s South Asian community as a truck driving instructor.

Source : PK onweb