Pakistani woman faces deportation

Press Conference Announcement

Date: Aug 4, 2003
Time: 10:00 A.M.
Location: 200 Rene Levesque,
in front of Complexe Guy Favreau

The Action Committee Against the Racial profiling of Pakistani Refugees,
South Asian Women’s Community Centre and No One Is Illegal Montreal
would like to announce an upcoming press conference regarding the recent
Immigration and Refugee Board decision to continue the detention of Mrs.
Bilqis Fatima and her son Imran Hussain.

On Thursday, July 31, 2003, the Immigration and Refugee Board announced
that it would indefinitely continue the detention of a woman in critical
medical condition, and her son, a minor, pending their removal to the
United States. Bilquis Fatima is a wheelchair-bound 63-year-old woman
with a serious heart condition and diabetes, who can not live without
dialysis three times a week. She and her son have been incarcerated in
the Laval Immigration Prevention Centre for over a month. During this
period her medical condition has deteriorated drastically. At the time
of this release, she had been vomiting for three days.

Mrs. Bilqis fled Pakistan for Montreal with her son three years ago,
following the murder of her husband by sectarian vigilantes. The murder
took place in the context of escalated violence in Pakistan which has
claimed the lives of hundreds of civilian lives, as documented by
international human rights monitors like Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch. Despite these facts, the refugee claims of Mrs. Bilqis and
her son were rejected, and Immigration Canada has ordered their removal.

However, Mrs. Bilqis has received medical notification that she is in no
condition to survive the long and difficult voyage back to Pakistan.
Immigration Canada is therefore now attempting to remove the family to
their port of entry, the United States.

Mrs. Bilqis and her son do not know anyone in the United States, and
will have no access to the medical facilities she urgently needs to
live.

Moreover, US immigration policy suggests that the family will
likely be removed from the US to Pakistan, regardless of the threat to
Mrs. Bilqis’s life. Under these circumstances, the removal of Mrs.
Bilqis and Imran to the US constitutes a transparent attempt by Canadian
immigration authorities to absolve themselves of the responsibility for
her certain death.

We demand that Immigration Canada immediately release the family from
detention and resume their medical and welfare allowance. We further
demand that they be given full status in Canada on humanitarian grounds.

The case of Mrs. Bilquis Fatima is one of many other cases of Pakistani
refugees who are facing potential deportation and detention because of
the unfair rejection of their applications by the Immigration and
Refugee Board. Most of these refugees are fleeing a political crisis in
Pakistan, which has been well documented by Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch.

The Action Committee also demands that the deportation of rejected
Pakistani claimants to either Pakistan or the United States be stopped
immediately; all Pakistani refugee claimants be granted full and
regularized status in Canada, and all rejected cases must be given a
second chance to apply again and have a fair hearing.

Action Committee Against Racial Profiling of Pakistani Refugees
No One is Illegal Campaign, Montreal
South Asian Women’s Community Centre

Contact:
Sarwat Viqar: 842-4610.