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Winifred Agimelen is
seen at the airport just prior to her deportation. (CTV Montreal Nadine Ishak)
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In spite of a loud outcry, Winifred
Agimelen and her three children have been sent back to Nigeria after living in
Montreal, Canada, for six years.
The Canadian government deportation of
Winifred Agimelen and her three children to Nigeria Sunday night hit a
temporary snag, as it turned out that the mother did not have a necessary
Nigerian visa for her third child, who is Canadian.
In spite of the visa issue, the family
of four boarded a plane out of Montreal. Agimelen's current husband is a landed
immigrant who lives here, but he does not have official custody rights for the
Canadian child.
Protesters are decrying the forced deportation,
as the order to leave stems from a complicated maze of immigration procedures
that will divide the family and possibly subject them to danger in West
Africa.
The three children were fathered by her
ex-husband. The third was conceived in Nigeria but born in Canada.
Agimelen fled Nigeria after her first
husband disappeared, possibly killed by people his father owed money to. She
was kidnapped with her children and her daughter was threatened with genital
mutilation as part of that affair. She arrived in Montreal six years ago.
The traumatic experience is believed to
have the caused psychological damage to her eldest child and led her to flee to
Canada.
The woman's lawyer worries that the
child will not develop well in Africa.
“He’s not going to receive services in
Nigeria. There’s no kind of therapy in Nigeria,” said Agimelen’s lawyer Angela Potvin. “We don’t
understand how Nigerian society works. It’s a much more dangerous place than we
know.”
A distraught Agimelen told CTV Montreal that the expulsion and
separation from her husband will be very challenging.
“Mostly I’m worried about the safety of
my children because there is so much violence in Nigeria. There’s news about
kidnapping children in Nigeria. There’s Boko Haram and Ebola in Nigera, it
gives me so much fear for me and my children,” she said.
She says she has no place to stay in
Nigeria and fears she will be targeted. She can’t return to her hometown
because she was subject to violence there, she explained.
Agimelen initially filed to stay in Canada
as a refugee but has since married a man with landed resident status. He was
deemed to be four months short of being permitted to sponsor Agimelen as his
wife.
Last Friday Potvin applied for a five
month extension to allow Agimelen’s immigration application to be administered
without her being forced to go to Nigeria, but it was denied.
Potvin says that the change of a single
word in the rules has prevented the Canadian Border Services Agency from
allowing the family to stay together, based on the difficulties it will pose to
the eldest child.
“One child has PTSD from this
kidnapping in Nigeria and there’s jurisprudence that says this constitutes a
‘special circumstance’ but there was a subtle change made in the act. It used
to say that someone could be removed as soon as 'practicable' but now it says
'as soon as possible,’” she said.
Source: http://montreal.ctvnews.ca
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