After two years of uncertainty, it appears the fight to keep a former child refugee in Canada is over.
Late Tuesday night, Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale took to Twitter to announce that the federal government would no longer be pursing the deportation of Abdoul Abdi.
“It’s unorthodox,” said Ben Perryman, Abdi’s lawyer. “We’d normally expect to hear some type of formal confirmation from the relevant department to the persons lawyer.”
READ: Feds won’t pursue deportation of former child refugee Abdoul Abdi: minister
Here’s the Tweet that was sent out by Ralph Goodale’s official account.
Perryman says neither he or his client have heard any official confirmation from government about Abdi’s case.
“Lawyers always like to know the exact details of what follows a decision and just reading the tweet doesn’t have those details. But from reading what Mr. Goodall put forward, it looks like the government has stopped all proceedings against Mr. Abdi, which is a fantastic result for him and a think a just decision in the circumstances,” said Perryman.
READ: Nova Scotia says it can’t help former child refugee facing deportation to Somalia
Abdoul Abdi and his sister, Fatouma, came to Canada in 2000 as child refugees. She was seven and he was only six years old.
Once in the country, the siblings were taken from their aunt’s and placed in foster care, where they were shuffled around to different homes for years. Fatoma says her younger brother experienced both mental and physical abuse.
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During their time in the care of the Nova Scotia government, no one applied for citizenship on behalf of either Abdoul or Fatouma.
Abdi got in trouble with the law and ended up serving time in prison for various offences, including aggravated assault. Once he was released, the 25-year-old faced a new dilemma: the government wanted to deport him to Somalia, a country his sister says they have no connection to.
Fatouma is thankful for all the support her family has received the last few years and was delighted to hear the news.
“I’m happy and my brother’s really happy. He’s overwhelmed but he’s happy,” she told Global News.
WATCH: The sister of a man who has spent most of his life in Canada but is facing deportation to Somalia speaks to Global News ahead of an emergency hearing in Federal Court on Thursday. Natasha Pace reports
In the past two years, the federal court has overturned Abdi’s deportation twice. Although there’s been no former confirmation yet, Abdi’s lawyer believes this is the end of their legal fight.
Perryman says Abdi was in disbeleif when he saw Goodale’s tweet and almost fainted.
“He is tired. I think what the public doesn’t see is that for the past two years he has been suffering from this uncertainty and is relieved to be free from that but it doesn’t erase what the last two years have done,” said Perryman of his client.
“It was really stressful. It took a lot of time. It stressed me out. It stressed Abdoul out you know what I mean, it gave us depression that we never had,” added Fatouma.
READ MORE: N.S. premier seeks review as Abdoul Abdi faces deportation
NDP MLA Susan LeBlanc says it’s the province’s duty to obtain citizenship for people in their care and would like to see changes.
“I think the province has to immediately put policies in place to protect the children that are in the province’s care to immediately obtain citizenship for them when they come into care,” she said.
“We cannot let this happen to anyone else. It’s untenable.”
WATCH: Fliss Cramman given permanent residency after lengthy deportation battle
Although the fight to stop Abdoul’s deportation is now over, Fatouma and her brother still have a lot of work ahead of them. That’s because both are still not Canadian citizens.
“We have to now try to take the steps on getting ourselves sorted out and trying to get our Canadian citizenship,” said Fatouma.
“I don’t know where to start yet, but that’s the next step we’re gonna take.”
The Nova Scotia Department of Community Services says they cannot speak to specific cases, however, spokesperson Heather Fairbarirn released a statement late Wednesday afternoon. It reads in part:
“I can tell you the safety and protection of children is our primary consideration. Placement of a newly arrived child to Canada into care is a very rare occurrence in Nova Scotia. We recently put into policy the required steps to be taken to confirm and clearly understand a child’s immigration and citizenship status upon a child coming into care.”
Fairbairn says effective May 1, 2018 under the Child Welfare Policy, if a child does not have Canadian citizenship, a caseworker shall collect official immigration paperwork to verify the child’s immigration status. All planning in response to immigration and citizenship issues for children in care must be considered as part of the child’s plan of care and subsequent supervisory reviews, ensuring that all required steps are taken in coordination with the federal government.
Ultimately, the province says the decision to proceed with an application for Canadian citizenship will be made on a case-by-case basis. Final decisions on citizenship remain a federal matter.
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