‘My hope was revived’: Nightmare ends for mother, son facing deportation after 19 years in Canada | 24CA News
After 19 years in Canada, Nike Okafor was almost ripped from her Canadian husband and household after a shock deportation order threatened to upend her life solely.
Now her nightmare is over.
Six months after CBC Toronto first reported on the story of the non-public assist employee dealing with a sudden and compelled return to Nigeria — the nation she fled almost 20 years in the past — Okafor says she will be able to lastly breathe after being granted everlasting resident standing this week.
“I thank God for where I am today,” she mentioned. “This is where I’ve been longing to be.”
Her Nigerian-born son, Sydney, 21, who additionally confronted deportation, can now envision a life not teetering on the sting of collapse.
“I’m just so happy my mother and I can stay in Canada with no worries after waiting so long,” he advised CBC Toronto. “It’s been a long struggle.”
With his everlasting resident standing, Sydney says he can qualify for scholar loans, afford to proceed education and at last do easy issues like journey together with his associates with out worry it would impression his standing.
Okafor, 39, has needed to combat for her survival earlier than. She arrived in Canada as an asylum seeker alone in 2003 along with her son in tow and pregnant with one other baby.
Being Muslim, she’d had a son with a Christian man and feared if she stayed, he could be taken from her — or worse.
In the years that adopted, Okafor put herself by way of college, discovered employment as a private assist employee, had two Canadian-born kids, met the person she would marry and constructed a future she by no means thought attainable.
‘Don’t cut up us,’ Canadian husband pleaded
It was a future that just about got here crashing down. After her refugee declare was denied, Okafor appealed and was advised to remain in shut contact with the Canadian Border Services Agency.
She did, and within the meantime, life went on.
Then, this previous April, Okafor and her son, who had been now in Canada with out standing, obtained a sudden deportation order from the CBSA. That’s regardless of her husband submitting a spousal sponsorship utility to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada greater than two years in the past.
Had the deportation gone forward, her two Canadian-born kids would have needed to say goodbye to their mom and her husband would have been separated from his spouse of 5 years.
“My whole life is here,” Okafor advised CBC Toronto in an emotional interview in July.
After almost 20 years in Canada, Nike Okafor is dealing with deportation to Nigeria regardless of having a Canadian husband and two Canadian kids, amid delays in processing her spousal sponsorship utility. The mom of three speaks to CBC Toronto about her want to keep within the nation.
“We’re a family,” her husband, Rotimi Odunaiya mentioned. “Don’t split us,” he urged the federal government.
Though spousal sponsorship wait instances are actually 10 to 12 months, Okafor and her household had been ready 28 months once they determined to talk out, saying they’d have lengthy been everlasting residents if not for the delays.
Advocates advised CBC Toronto it was confounding that somebody could possibly be slapped with a deportation order whereas such an utility was beneath evaluation.
The CBSA mentioned on the time that having a Canadian-born baby doesn’t stop somebody from being deported, however the company “always considers the best interest of the child before removing someone.”
‘People get sick on this course of, lose hope’
Within hours of CBC Toronto’s reporting, the household’s lawyer obtained a letter from the CBSA granting their request to defer the deportation, whereas he continued their combat to remain.
Then, this previous Monday got here the news they’d been praying for: a letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada stating their purposes for everlasting resident standing had been authorised.
“My hope was revived,” Okafor mentioned, recalling the darkness she felt when she thought she must go away the nation she calls house.
Vakkas Bilsin, Okafor’s lawyer, advised CBC Toronto his shopper solely heard from the IRCC about her sponsorship utility after her story made the news.
“They had not taken our requests for expedited process seriously by the time you covered Nike’s story.”
As for Okafor, if there’s one factor she would ask the federal government for now, it is compassion for these whose immigration purposes are ongoing.
“People get sick in this process, lose hope,” she mentioned. “They should be given a chance to make sure the process is done.”
