For five years, the Canadian government has jerked Adel Benhmuda and his family around.
It refused them refugee status in Canada; it deported them back to Libya, where he was jailed and tortured; then it dithered on whether to allow them back into this country in a way condemned as unfair by a Federal Court judge.
Finally, in January, federal immigration officials decided that the family could return to Canada after all from their place of exile in Malta. But now, in a cruel twist, they have imposed a condition. As reported by the Star’s Sandro Contenta, the family has been told it must pay $6,000 – the cost to the government of deporting them to Libya in 2008.
This saga has gone on far too long. Immigration Minister Chris Alexander should tell his officials immediately to waive this ridiculous and insulting fee. Aside from the fact that an almost penniless refugee has little chance of coming up with $6,000, it amounts to charging him for the injustice perpetrated on his family. “It’s like executing someone and then going to the family and demanding that they pay for the bullet,” says their lawyer, Andrew Brouwer.
The Benhmudas’ story became public in 2011, when the Star reported on their plight. But it began in 2000 when the family fled Libya (then still ruled by Moammar Gadhafi) because police had been harassing and beating Adel Benhmuda in an effort to find out about his brother, a member of a group fighting the dictatorship.
They came to Canada, but were deported back to Libya in 2008 where Adel was jailed and tortured for six months.
The family managed to get out of Libya again, and since 2010 they’ve been in Malta. A Federal Court judge in Canada ruled last year that their application to return to Canada did not get a fair hearing, largely because Canadian immigration officials based in Rome were biased against them.
This ran directly counter to statements at the time by then-immigration minister Jason Kenney that the family should be given “every humanitarian consideration” in their efforts to come back to Canada.
In January, the way seemed clear when immigration officials decided they could come back from Malta. Now comes the demand for $6,000 to reimburse the government for flying them to Libya, plus another $800 to apply to return.
Asked about all this last week, Alexander at least had the grace to sound embarrassed. He told the House of Commons that his department will be looking at “every possible option for waiving costs and fees and showing compassion in this extraordinary case.”
The minister should deliver on that as quickly as possible.
More importantly, he should do everything necessary to root out the attitudes in his department that led to years of unnecessary suffering for the Benhmuda family, and may well contribute to injustice for others.
– Toronto Star
