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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Aug 05 2011 - 07:27:32 EDT
New immigration interviews ordered for Eritreans grilled by suspicious visa
officer
BY CAROL SANDERS, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
AUGUST 5, 2011
WINNIPEG - A group of Eritrean refugees rejected by an untrained visa
officer in Cairo who quizzed them on the Holy Spirit are getting another
interview and chance to come to Canada.
After taking the federal government to court and winning, the Canadian
Council for Refugees learned this week that the 37 people she turned away
will be interviewed again at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo in September.
``That's the most you can hope for - to strike down an incorrect decision
and send it back to be heard by a different visa officer,'' said Janet
Dench, executive director of the Canadian refugee advocacy group.
``You hope the next determination is soon and by a visa officer who is fully
informed on the situation in Eritrea and understands properly (what she's
doing).''
Even after winning in court, the group had to push the federal government
for the refugees' cases to be heard in a reasonable amount of time, said
Andrew Brouwer, the Toronto lawyer for the Canadian Council for Refugees.
``In the meantime, our clients continue to live in very difficult and
dangerous circumstances in Cairo and Khartoum,'' he said.
Several of the refugees were being sponsored privately by Winnipeg's
Pentecostal Eritrean Church. More than a year ago it complained to the
federal immigration minister about a visa officer in Cairo. She was
dismissing the Eritreans' cases because she didn't believe they were
Pentecostal, the group said.
Others complained about her as well, and the Canadian Council for Refugees
decided to challenge her decisions in the Federal Court of Canada.
This spring, the court ruled that the visa officer lacked adequate training
and support. She made poor decisions in dozens of cases for more than a year
- even after the Canadian Council for Refugees alerted Immigration Minister
Jason Kenney's office to a troubling pattern at the Cairo office involving
the officer.
Kenney ignored concerns raised by the ``reputable organization,'' the judge
ruled.
``. . . Common sense and fairness leads me to conclude that the minister
ought to have taken the complaint more seriously,'' Justice Judith Snider
said in her decision. She awarded the refugee council costs, and the court
ordered the federal government to deliver monthly updates on the refugees'
cases to show they were being reviewed and moving forward.
``We were really very disappointed this had to come all the way to a
federal- court decision,'' said Dench in Montreal.
``We had alerted federal government on a discreet, off-the-record basis . .
. and thought that would be enough. When that did not lead to anything, we
filed a report that led to nothing at all.''
So, the council took their concerns to federal court to have the refugees'
cases reviewed.
Early on in the case, the visa officer in Cairo was cross-examined by
teleconference. That was a ``watershed moment,'' the federal court judge
wrote, when the ``magnitude and existence of some of the errors should have
been apparent to the minister.''
The visa officer's lack of training was obvious, said Dench.
``Many of her answers made it very clear she did not understand her legal
obligations,'' she said. ``It was quite astonishing.'' For instance, if the
visa officer didn't believe an Eritrean was Pentecostal, she'd reject them
on that basis alone without considering any other grounds, as the law
requires, said Dench. ``Many of her answers made it very clear she did not
understand her legal obligations.''
Instead of addressing the problem then and there and saving litigation
costs, the federal government proceeded in court and lost, Dench said. It's
added another year ``in limbo'' for the refugees who escaped Eritrea.
They're struggling to survive in chaotic Cairo waiting for the Canadian
Embassy to deal with their cases.
``For the most part, refugees overseas do not have access to a lawyer to
represent them at federal court,'' said Dench. ``If a visa officer is not
properly trained and makes a bad decision it's usually never challenged.''
The 37 Eritreans whose cases were went to federal court are the fortunate
few, said Dench.
C Copyright (c) Postmedia News
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