[van-announce] URGENT APPEAL: Stop Deportation! (forward widely)

[Ivan D.]

(Please forward, copy and distribute widely) 

If cut and pasted to word, this will fit on one faxable page at 11pt. Times New Roman font. If emailing, copy, paste into the body of the email and type your name at the bottom of the letter.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stop the wave of deportations by Immigration Canada

STOP THE DEPORTATION OF BILQUEES AND IMRAN:

Read this statement, sign and send; in defense of Bilquees, Imran and all Asylum Seekers:

Bilquees Fatima is a 63-year-old Pakistani refugee who fled Pakistan with her teenage son, Imran Hussain, in 2001 after the murder of her husband. Racial and religious violence has swept through Pakistan, targeting Shia Muslims like Bilquees and Imran. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have clearly documented the threat that exists for Shia Muslims and particularly women. Bilquees and Imran came to Canada seeking asylum from this terror and this very real danger to their lives.

Bilquees and Imran are being held in detention in Montreal. They go before a detention review board on Friday, August 29th. At a previous detention review, the review board declared Bilquees a "flight risk" because she declared her unwillingness to return to Pakistan where she fears she will be killed. 

Since being in detention, Bilquees' health has severely deteriorated. She suffers from a serious heart condition, is wheelchair-bound and has diabetes. She cannot survive without dialysis three times a week. Her son has reported over phone interviews from detention that her feet have swelled to the point of bleeding from increased blood pressure. Not only is she remaining in detention, immigration is planning to deport her to the US where she has not been accepted as a refugee and where there is no promise of medical treatment. Bilquees and Imran are being deported to the US rather than directly to Pakistan to cover the brutality of this deportation and to absolve Citizenship and Immigration Canada of responsibility for sending her to her certain death.

It is unlikely that Bilquees would survive the difficult trip to Pakistan. If she was to land in Pakistan, her fears are well founded that she would be captured and killed by Lashkar-e-Jangvi thugs before leaving the airport. At the foundation of the case is the question of whether or not Bilquees and Imran are "valid" refugees. It has been established that they are targeted in Pakistan on the basis of their religion and that they cannot rely on the government of Pakistan to protect them from the immediate threat of violence against them. This is not an isolated case, but part of Immigration Canada's "crack down" on Pakistanis in particular and Muslim refugee communities in general. 

The Canadian government must understand that the deportation of this elderly woman and her teenage son is unjust, unwarranted and malicious. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honorable Minister Coderre;

Given that Bilquees' health and life is in jeopardy while she is in detention and that she and her son would be placed in mortal danger by a removal to Pakistan or the US, I demand: 
1) That Immigration Canada release her from detention immediately and arrange proper medical care for her and reinstate their access to social services.
2) That no removal take place to either Pakistan or the US prior to the Humanitarian and Compassionate claim being processed in a fair and just manner.
3) That she and her son be given full status in Canada on 
humanitarian grounds.

Sincerely;

Signature:___________________________________ Printed Name: _____________________________

Address: ____________________________________ Email: ___________________________________



Immigration Minister Denis Coderre: minister at cic.gc.ca / coderd at parl.gc.ca / coderd1 at parl.gc.ca

Phone: 613-957-0312 Fax: 613-957-2688

Mail: Denis Coderre, Minister of Immigration, Ottawa Ontario K1A 0A6

Rene D'Aoust, Director of Investigations and Removals: 

1010 St. Antione W, 2nd Floor, Montreal Quebec, H3C 1B2 Phone: 514-496-1238

Distributed by: Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice: www.fire-this-time.org 

 



---------------------------------
Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/van-announce/attachments/20030826/69861c11/attachment.html>