Esperanza Rivera Vaquerano sought refuge here. Now authorities won’t let her leave San Salvador terminal. Maurice Bridge, Vancouver Sun. Published: Thursday, July 06, 2006

A woman deported from Vancouver is stranded at El Salvador International Airport, unable to leave the terminal after being abandoned by Canadian immigration officers who took her there in handcuffs nearly a week ago.

In a real-life variation of the film The Terminal, which stars Tom Hanks as a man trapped without documentation in New York’s Kennedy Airport, she is in limbo — stateless and homeless and comforted by a sister who has been allowed to pass her some money and a toothbrush, but nothing more.

In a callphone interview with The Vancouver Sun Wednesday, Esperanza Rivera Vaquerano, 32, said she has been sleeping on the floor and airport chairs, and has not had a shower, a change of clothes or proper meals since Friday. “I spend a lot of time sleeping, because it’s very uncomfortable and I’m very tired,” she said. “Food here is a little
expensive, so I [only] have something to eat once a day.”

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Rights breached; refugee can stay. After a year in sanctuary, woman is told hearing should have been held in French Dave Rogers, The Ottawa Citizen

After almost a year in sanctuary in a Sandy Hill church, African refugee claimant Maoua Diomande walked out of Eglise du Sacre Coeur a free woman yesterday. Citizenship and Immigration Canada says Ms. Diomande can stay in Canada for humanitarian reasons after the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages concluded her language rights were violated because her Immigration and Refugee Board hearing was not in French.

The office found that her language rights were not fully respected because she had to complete an English-language form and use an interpreter at her hearing. The soft-spoken native of Ivory Coast has been in sanctuary since just before the end of June 2005. The 44-year-old former elementary school teacher lived in one room at the church on Cumberland Street and Laurier Avenue East to avoid deportation. Supporters led Ms. Diomande from the church into the sunshine on Cumberland Street yesterday afternoon chanting “Maoua! Maoua!”

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Update July 2005: Quebec City, July 23, 2005

Mohamed has just been released by the U.S. authorities. His release was made possible when the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals granted him political refugee status in June—a status which has yet to be granted him by the Quebec and Canadian authorities.

It was with great joy and emotion that we learned the news earlier this week. That decision (coupled with the fact that the U.S. government did not appeal from it after all) confirms once again that Mohamed’s demands could not be more legitimate and that he has been the victim of injustice all these months. We have been supporting him in these efforts for over a year and a half and have followed the difficulties that have been his lot all that time.

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Update June 2, 2005: Mohamed Cherfi recognized as a political refugee by the United States

The Board of Immigration Appeal in the United States has just recognized Mohamed Cherfi as a political refugee by overturning the refusal handed down by a U.S. Immigration Court judge on October 22, 2004. That recognition highlights all the injustice suffered by Mr. Cherfi in conjunction with the processing of his application for immigration to Canada and Quebec, which have several times denied the serious risks facing him in Algeria. The organizations and individuals supporting Mr. Cherfi, along with his partner, Louise Boivin, demand that the Quebec and Canadian authorities take measures so that he can return to Canada immediately.

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Vega Family Free and And Ayoub family Free at Last. Press releases from Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition and Coalition against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugess below.

THE INTERFAITH SANCTUARY COALITION Press Conference on Monday, February 14 for the Liberation of the Vega Family after 19 Months in Sanctuary . Montreal , February 13, 2005 – Alvaro, Mireya and Marcela Vega are free at long last. The Colombian couple and their daughter, who have been in Sanctuary in Montreal’s St. Andrew’s-Norwood United Church since July 17, 2003, have received a positive decision from Immigration Canada on their application for permanent residence based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. They can now leave the church basement that has been their home, without fear of deportation to Colombia. Rev. Rosemary Lambie-Bromby of the United Church expressed her delight with this decision, noting however that it is “very unfortunate that the family had to be in sanctuary 567 days before the cries of the people were taken seriously”.

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