A Nigerian lady may be deported to Nigeria from Canada any time soon. According to Afrotimes News, Idayat Saka, who is a healthcare worker in Toronto is on the brink of being deported for giving birth to a baby. The news outlet reported that the Toronto healthcare worker did exactly as she was told by her doctor in a bid to protect herself and her baby, but it seems it is now being used against her.
The report has it that the 33-year-old mother of four stopped working at the start of her third trimester of pregnancy due to “high-risk” complications from previous cesarean births. Little did Saka know that her decision to stop working when she did would later be used by an immigration officer to deny her permanent residency in Canada. This rejection means that Saka, her husband and two of their kids may be deported to Nigeria soon. Her three-year-old son and one-year-old son can’t be deported because they’re Canadian. While explaining the heartbreak she encountered when her application to remain in Canada was declined to Afrotimes News, she said: “I was crying. I was done,”
Both Saka and her husband are failed asylum seekers. The couple came to Canada in 2017 after their lives were threatened by gunmen in Nigeria. These claims were dismissed later. After they came to Canada, Saka went back to school so she could become a personal support worker and spent over 2,000 hours caring for sick and elderly patients in Ontario during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Most of this work happened during the deadly third and fourth waves of the virus. She applied for permanent residency in Canada via a special program established by former Liberal immigration minister Marco Mendicino. Under the program, the “exceptional service” of failed and pending asylum seekers that have worked on the front lines of the pandemic can be rewarded by offering them an alternative pathway to residency.
Saka’s application was however rejected by an officer at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada since she didn’t meet one of the program’s basic requirements: having worked at least 120 hours between March 13, 2020 (the day pandemic travel restrictions were first introduced in Canada) and Aug. 14, 2020 (the day the program was announced by Mendicino). As the program was announced months after Saka proceeded on leave, there was no way she could know this decision would later be used to deny her residency.
She said: “Whenever I think about it I’m so depressed.”
Saka will be appealing the decision to the Federal Court.
If Saka wins the case at the Federal Court, her application will be resent to another immigration officer for reconsideration. Also, Fraser could intervene and allow her and her family to stay. Whatever the outcome, she feels like she’s earned the right to stay in Canada. She said: “I’ve worked for it and I’m still working.”
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