Watch above: After five long years of bureaucratic red tape, a Saskatoon couple is now a family with their adopted son from Pakistan. Joel Senick finds out how the little boy is adjusting to life in Canada.
SASKATOON – Ajjab Afridi, 4, plays with a remote control car Wednesday afternoon in an east-side Saskatoon park, thousands of miles away from his native Pakistan. Afridi arrived in Saskatoon Monday after an almost five-year-long battle between his adoptive parents and the federal government.
“We’re happy,” said Ashfaq Afridi, Ajjab’s father, as he holds his son in his arms.
“We’re good now.”
Ashfaq’s wife, Waheeda, left Saskatoon to retrieve her son in 2010 and spent almost five years in and around Pakistan, trying to bring him home.
READ MORE: Adopted boy from Pakistan arrives in Saskatoon
“Every time when you hear the news, the explosion, then you have to worry about your family, so that was very hard,” said Ashfaq, who stayed in Saskatoon during the ordeal.
Ajjab was conceived by Waheeda’s sister, however Pakistan is not part of an international adoption agreement that Canada observes and the Afridi’s application was rejected numerous times.
“With the federal department, we are very, very disappointed,” said Saskatoon-based lawyer Haidah Amirzadeh, who represented the family pro bono
“They did anything possible to prevent this application going through and we are still very puzzled at why,” she added.
After numerous steps, Ajjab was recently issued a permanent residence visa by the Canadian government.
“It was a big surprise for them, for me too,” said Ashfaq of the moment when he reunited with his family in Toronto, before flying back to Saskatoon.
“[I was] happy when I saw them.”
Ashfaq said his son is still getting used to Canada and the new freedoms he has. In Pakistan, he said the boy spent the majority of his time indoors due to the level of danger in the area he was residing. He’s now getting acclimated to being outside.
“He doesn’t want to be outside, he will always want to be inside,” said Ashfaq, laughing.
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