Wrongly deported family can return but must pay CA$6000 deportation costs

The painful tale of a family fleeing Libya for Canada as refugees has now taken an even worse turn.

Adel Benhmuda, his wife and his four children made a bid for freedom from persecution in Libya, but were refused refugee status once they had arrived in Canada. In 2008, the entire family was deported back to Libya where, on their arrival, Adel was imprisoned and tortured.

Eventually, they were able to escape to Malta, and made their home in a shipping container in a refugee camp. Last January, Canadian immigration officials who ordered their deportation were heavily criticised by a Federal Court, and the family were told they would be allowed to settle in Canada on humanitarian grounds.

The heartbreaking sting in the tail came last Wednesday, when the family was informed they must refund the CA$6,000 deportation fee to the immigration authority before they would be allowed in. The lawyer for the family, Andrew Brouwer, is outraged at the decision, telling the media that it’s the same as executing a prisoner and ordering his family to pay for the bullet.

During a phone interview from Malta, Adel admitted he had nowhere near enough savings to pay as demanded. He’s unemployed at present, and believes the family’s treatment by immigration is unbelievably unfair as it was their error which resulted in his torture by the Gaddafi regime and his family’s misery.

Brouwer has urged Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander to waive the fee on compassionate grounds, given that the department was responsible for the initial error. The family had been granted refugee status on Malta and, in 2011, the UK High Commission for Refugees’ formal request for their resettlement in Canada was rejected out of hand until the Federal Court decision in its favour.