Asylum seeker heading for Canada loses parts of three fingers

A man seeking asylum in Canada has lost parts of three fingers due to frostbite he suffered last month while crossing the border from the United States.

Kangni Kouevi walked for more than three hours in the bitter cold on Jan. 5 to cross near the Manitoba border town of Emerson.

The RCMP picked him up and took him to the Canada Border Services Agency at Emerson after he called 911 on his cellphone.

Officials there sent him to the hospital in Morris, but days later his hands were still so badly injured, blistered and oozing that agency officials couldn’t take his fingerprints.

The Hospitality House Refugee Ministry says Kouevi’s right hand healed but parts of three fingers on his left hand had to be amputated.

The former Togo resident is awaiting an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing this June in Winnipeg.

Karin Gordon, director of settlement services for the ministry, said Kouevi is “healing very well.” Gordon helped the 36-year-old francophone through the registration process so he could get interim federal health benefits.

Kouevi is the third person in a year to be badly injured by the freezing cold while walking through U.S. farm fields into Canada near Emerson. Two Ghanaian men lost their fingers to frostbite in January 2017.

In May 2017, Mavis Otuteye, a 57-year-old Ghanaian woman, died of hypothermia less than a kilometre south of the Canadian border in Minnesota while attempting to cross the border.

Kouevi has previously said he fled Togo because he faced death threats after converting to Christianity and couldn’t count on authorities to protect him.

He asked for asylum in America and was put in an immigration prison for 11 months before his claim was rejected. He was released and told to await his removal to Togo. Instead, he headed north, hoping Canada would grant him protection.

Gordon said his hearing will likely be postponed due to an influx of asylum claims in Canada in the last year.

Kouevi is learning English and waiting for a work permit and a Manitoba Health card so he can sign up with the Society for Manitobans with Disabilities to get specialized training that will help him find a job.

He currently lives at the charity ’s residence with other newcomers.