[news] CKUT Radio: Resisting Pakistani Deportations in Montreal

[Stefan Christoff]

CKUT Radio: Resisting Pakistani Deportations in Montreal

Listen to a report with members of the Action Committee of Pakistani
Refugees in Montreal and the No One is Illegal Campaign, who are currently
organizing a political campaign to fight against the deportation of over
400 Pakistani refugees from Canada. These refugees are facing deportation
in the coming days, weeks and months.  Since September 11th, Pakistani
refugees have been systematically rejected at a rate of approximately 80%,
by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

These refugees are facing deportation to both Pakistan and to the United
States their port of entry into Canada. If deported to the United States
many the 400 Pakistani refugees would face the same persecution many
recently fled, detention and the mandatory INS registration program for
many Arabs, Muslim and South Asians. If deported to Pakistani these 400
refugees mainly Shi'ia Muslim would face the same religious persecution
they fled in Pakistan. The grounds for rejection of these refugee claims
from CIC, being that the situation in Pakistan for these refugees has
improved in Pakistan despite contrary human rights reports from Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch.

One Pakistani refugee Bilquis Fatima a 63-year-old a wheelchair-bound
woman with a serious heart condition has been incarcerated along with her
son Imran Hussain at Montreal¹s Laval Immigration Prevention Centre for
over a month. During this period her medical condition has deteriorated
drastically. Bilquis Fatima case has become a focal point of the campaign
to fight the deportation of Palestinian Refugees.

-> To Listen to the CKUT Radio Report Visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=7629

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Background Information on the Action Committee of Pakistani Refugees:

In Montreal, there are over 400 Pakistani refugee claimants facing
deportation in the coming months as their cases are being rejected in
unprecedented numbers by the Immigration and Refugee Board. These refusals
are based on the grounds that the situation in Pakistan from these
refugees has improved, whereas, the facts are contrary to it. These
refugees are fleeing a violent political and sectarian crisis in Pakistan,
which has been well documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch. They have escaped from the killings, torture, kidnappings, rape and
constant humiliations.

A close review of the rejected cases indicates that some IRB judges are
not aware of their own departments published reports, which clearly agrees
with the aforementioned human rights reports, and as such the decisions of
the IRB judges decisions are indicative of systemic racial profiling. In
the post 9/11 climate, there is also an increase in detention of
Pakistanis, particularly men, with most of them being held in detention
upon arrival at either Dorval airport or at the LaColle border.

Facing evident persecution, it is a deplorable and unacceptable that a
significant number of these refugees are being rejected and deported in
the coming days and months. On the part of the members of the Immigration
and Refugee Board, there is a clear lack of understanding, and
inconsistency in judgment, with regards to what these refugees face-
torture, rape, murder- upon their return.

This situation points to the growing criminalization of asylum seekers
world. Montreal's Pakistani refugees are developing a political campaign
against the efforts of Immigration Canada to deport them. The developing
campaign to fight against the efforts of Immigration Canada to deport
Montreal's Pakistani refugees is also clearly part of the growing movement
world wide, which confronts and challenges the Canadian State and its
racist policies against immigrants, refugees and indigenous peoples.