Bratina ‘lobbying hard’ for family to stay in Canada
MP Bob Bratina says he hopes federal officials will allow a Hamilton family facing deportation to stay in Canada.
“We’re certainly lobbying hard to keep them here,” the Hamilton East-Stoney Creek member said Friday.
The Palfis came to Canada and claimed refugee status in September, 2011. The two teenage boys and their mother say they faced abuse from their biological father in Hungary.
The family’s original hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board started in November 2012 but wasn’t completed. Their claim sat idle for six years, until this spring, when the board rejected it. They have been ordered to fly to Hungary on Feb. 3, Adam Palfi says. If upheld, the deportation means the 17-year-old won’t be able to graduate from Westmount Secondary School in June.
“It would be great if I could at least finish that,” Adam says
The deportation also puts in jeopardy a plan to study mechanical engineering in Canada and a “dream goal” to build race cars. Adam has already been accepted into Carleton University with an annual scholarship of $2,000 renewable each year.
Westmount has nominated him for a prestigious full-ride scholarship at the University of Toronto. But Adam worries more about his brother, Marton, 15, who struggles with written Hungarian. His mom, Erzsebet, and stepfather, Tibor, are building superintendents. In Hungary, she was a professor and he a fire alarm engineer, but they’re not likely able to rekindle those careers there, Adam says. An online petition calling for the family was rapidly approaching its goal of 2,500 supporters Friday night.
Lorne Waldman, who specializes in refugee and immigration law, says the family’s case is “heartbreaking.” It’s one of about 35,000 “legacy claims” that were left languishing after the previous Conservative government overhauled the refugee system in 2012. The idea was to clear the backlog, but it didn’t come with adequate funding, meaning the tribunal couldn’t schedule many cases, Waldman noted. Last year, the federal Liberals announced a new Legacy Task Force that aimed to start clearing the backlog within two years. Now, they’re deporting people before humanitarian appeals can be considered, Waldman says.
“That’s not fair,” Waldman says. “That’s not the Canadian way.”
Co-counsel Joanna Berry said the Palfis have applied for a judicial review of the refugee board’s decision. “But there’s nothing preventing them from getting deported in the interim.”
Another avenue is a humanitarian application for permanent residency. The plan is to ask the Canada Border Services Agency to defer the deportation to allow for the application and for the boys to finish the school year. Waldman said it’s also within the immigration minister’s purview to intervene and issue a temporary residency permit.
Bratina said he’s contacted Ahmed Hussen’s office and hopes to speak with him in the new year. “I’m positive there will be a good outcome for this, but we still have to go through the process.”