Government in a bind over deportation
If Abdirahmaan Warssama signs a piece of paper, he can get out of the high-security prison where he has spent the past five years. But he won’t sign it.
Signing a note assuring an airline he will not cause a ruckus on board means the 51-year-old will be deported to his homeland, Somalia, a place deemed too dangerous for Canadian pilots to fly him and too risky for Canadian border agents to escort him. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent keeping him behind bars, even though he is not deemed a danger to the public.
How does Canada solve a problem like Warssama?
That’s the dilemma Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) face in the unusual case.
Warssama’s lawyer, however, challenges the notion his client is in an Ontario prison for any legitimate reason and last week the Federal Court of Canada added a stern reprimand of its own.
“They were basically trying to get him to perjure himself — to say he wishes to go back when he really doesn’t,” said Warssama’s Toronto lawyer, Subodh Bharati.
“He’s been kept in detention for over five years because he wouldn’t sign.”
In his homeland, Warssama faced torture, said Bharati. After Warssama’s father was killed, he and his brother were kidnapped, placed in bags and dunked in the ocean in a form of waterboarding.
His mother pulled together enough money to pay a bribe and free him and move him to India and from there to Canada in 1989, he said.
Within two weeks of his arrival, his refugee claim was denied.
It was only after his claim was tossed that he sought medical attention and treatment from the Centre for Victims of Torture. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
It was compelling enough for the government to intervene, allowing him to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds; but Warssama didn’t obtain permanent residency status or citizenship.
He also got into trouble: he received at least two criminal convictions of a seemingly minor nature around 2005.
As a convicted non-citizen, he was found inadmissible to Canada and ordered deported in 2009.
He was arrested over his immigration status a year later and has been in prison since.
While Canada has a “temporary” administrative hold on removing people to Somalia, it does not apply to someone found inadmissible on the grounds of criminality. But while regulations allow for Warssama’s deportation, logistical problems make it difficult.
Somalia has been described as a “failed state.”
African Express Airways is the only airline willing to fly a failed refugee claimant to Somalia unescorted, but it requires a signed consent form from the person agreeing to co-operate in the removal, court heard.
That’s the paperwork Warssama refuses to sign.
“Given that we already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in detaining Mr. Warssama, why not charter a plane?” asked Federal Court Judge Sean Harrington, who heard Warssama’s appeal. “Apparently, because it is too dangerous to send Canadian pilots to Mogadishu!” he answered himself.
And why must a person be unescorted on the last leg? “Because Immigration Canada considers it too dangerous to send its own people there!”
“The minister shall explain why a plane cannot be chartered to fly him directly to Somalia under escort.”
And the government must explore alternatives to prison.