WINNIPEG - A group of Eritrean refugees rejected by an untrained visa officer in Cairo who quizzed them on the Holy Spirit are getting another interview and chance to come to Canada.
After taking the federal government to court and winning, the Canadian Council for Refugees learned this week that the 37 people she turned away will be interviewed again at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo in September.
``That's the most you can hope for - to strike down an incorrect decision and send it back to be heard by a different visa officer,'' said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian refugee advocacy group.
``You hope the next determination is soon and by a visa officer who is fully informed on the situation in Eritrea and understands properly (what she's doing).''
Even after winning in court, the group had to push the federal government for the refugees' cases to be heard in a reasonable amount of time, said Andrew Brouwer, the Toronto lawyer for the Canadian Council for Refugees.
``In the meantime, our clients continue to live in very difficult and dangerous circumstances in Cairo and Khartoum,'' he said.
Several of the refugees were being sponsored privately by Winnipeg's Pentecostal Eritrean Church. More than a year ago it complained to the federal immigration minister about a visa officer in Cairo. She was dismissing the Eritreans' cases because she didn't believe they were Pentecostal, the group said.
Others complained about her as well, and the Canadian Council for Refugees decided to challenge her decisions in the Federal Court of Canada.
This spring, the court ruled that the visa officer lacked adequate training and support. She made poor decisions in dozens of cases for more than a year - even after the Canadian Council for Refugees alerted Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office to a troubling pattern at the Cairo office involving the officer.
Kenney ignored concerns raised by the ``reputable organization,'' the judge ruled.
``. . . Common sense and fairness leads me to conclude that the minister ought to have taken the complaint more seriously,'' Justice Judith Snider said in her decision. She awarded the refugee council costs, and the court ordered the federal government to deliver monthly updates on the refugees' cases to show they were being reviewed and moving forward.
``We were really very disappointed this had to come all the way to a federal- court decision,'' said Dench in Montreal.
``We had alerted federal government on a discreet, off-the-record basis . . . and thought that would be enough. When that did not lead to anything, we filed a report that led to nothing at all.''
So, the council took their concerns to federal court to have the refugees' cases reviewed.
Early on in the case, the visa officer in Cairo was cross-examined by teleconference. That was a ``watershed moment,'' the federal court judge wrote, when the ``magnitude and existence of some of the errors should have been apparent to the minister.''
The visa officer's lack of training was obvious, said Dench.
``Many of her answers made it very clear she did not understand her legal obligations,'' she said. ``It was quite astonishing.'' For instance, if the visa officer didn't believe an Eritrean was Pentecostal, she'd reject them on that basis alone without considering any other grounds, as the law requires, said Dench. ``Many of her answers made it very clear she did not understand her legal obligations.''
Instead of addressing the problem then and there and saving litigation costs, the federal government proceeded in court and lost, Dench said. It's added another year ``in limbo'' for the refugees who escaped Eritrea.
They're struggling to survive in chaotic Cairo waiting for the Canadian Embassy to deal with their cases.
``For the most part, refugees overseas do not have access to a lawyer to represent them at federal court,'' said Dench. ``If a visa officer is not properly trained and makes a bad decision it's usually never challenged.''
The 37 Eritreans whose cases were went to federal court are the fortunate few, said Dench.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/immigration+interviews+ordered+Eritreans+grilled+suspicious+visa+officer/5210877/story.html#ixzz1UQB35Ukw
