Stateless Roma refugee faces imminent deportation

Posted by admin on Oct 26th, 2004

MEDIA ADVISORY  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DETENTION REVIEW HEARING/ DEMONSTRATION AT CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION CANADA. 300 WEST GEORGIA TUESDAY OCTOBER 26TH @ 12:45 PM

Stateless Roma Refugee, subject of high-level talks between the Prime Minister of Canada and President of Romania, Facing Imminent Deportation

Adrian Dragan, a stateless Roma refugee has been held for 16 months facing deportation to Romania. In his last detention review, details of the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Iliescu, who came to Canada for an official visit on Sept. 17 and 18, were entered as evidence that Canada was committed to pushing forward with this deportation.

An email on behalf of Canadian Border Services Agency was presented as evidence, “The Prime Minister discussed the case with the Romanian president for approximately 10-15 minutes on the subject of Dragan; The PM was evidently very forceful in his position that this was an important issue that, if left unresolved, will affect bilateral relations with Romania.”

Last week Dragan was put into solitary confinement and he was on hunger strike at Fraser Pre-trial in Coquitlam after refusing to sign documents that he is willing to return to Romania.

He is a Roma (also known as “Gypsy”) and faces serious danger and repression if removed to Romania, where Roma people are regularly attacked and persecuted. In fact, Adrian renounced his citizenship in Romania in 1993 to condemn the racism against Roma there, and since he does not have formal citizenship, he is now being held in jailed limbo, without rights as a citizen in either Canada or Romania.

Canada has already tried once to send Adrian to Romania, but he was refused at the Romanian border. Since he is no longer a citizen of Romania, it would have been against international law to force him to enter, so he was sent back to Canada and now in continued detention by Immigration Canada.

As a stateless citizen, Dragan has no homeland and no country of residence. As a signatory of the United Nations’ 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Canada has an international duty to accept and protect stateless people.

Comments are closed.