Yussuf Madey Mohamed, father of four is expected to be deported to Kenya on Monday.
Yussuf Madey Mahamed made a desperate public plea Saturday for more time to have his application to stay in Canada processed.
Mohamed said his life is in danger if Canadian authorities return him to Kenya.
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials earlier ordered him deported and he was unsuccessful in an appeal hearing Friday.
He said he fears he will be thrown in jail if he returns to Kenya for having forged documents, and believes he could face violence in prison.
“I’m hurt,” Mahamed said through a translator. “I’m going to a place where I’m sure my life is in danger. At the same time, I’m leaving my family.”
Yussuf Madey Mahamed made a desperate public plea Saturday for more time to have his application to stay in Canada processed.
In a letter to CBSA’s inland enforcement branch, David Matas, Mahamed’s lawyer, asked that deportation be held off until the sponsorship application is complete, which they expect will happen soon. He wrote the CBSA has agreed to defer removals in past cases and that deferring would be in the best interests of the children.
A CBSA spokesperson said the agency would not be able to comment on the case Saturday. Canada’s immigration and refugee board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ahmed Abdulkadir, executive director of Ogaden Somali Community of Alberta Residents (OSCAR), said the group is now advocating on the family’s behalf and says several local community members who lived in Ifo can attest that Mahamed lived there as a Somali refugees
Mahamed has been in Canada since 2013 and is married to a Canadian citizen, Halima Ibrahim Ali.
Ali filed an application to sponsor her husband to stay in Canada Feb. 23, 2016.
The two were engaged in Kenya and married in 2014 in Canada.
Mahamed worked for a cleaning company on a work permit and is the family’s only breadwinner.
They have three young children together and care from a fourth daughter from Ali’s previous relationship
Mahamed is originally from Somalia and entered Canada using a forged Kenyan passport he purchased under the name Farah Muhamed Aballahi.
In 1994, he fled war in Somalia and lived in Kenya’s Ifo refugee camp for almost 20 years.
Halbeeg News and Agencies
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