Photos: Nigerian woman stripped of refugee status in Canada because of misppelling of her name in birth document
A 32
year-old Nigerian woman, Gift Daniel is now facing deportation from Canada
after an Ottawa court overturned a decision to grant her a refugee status
because of a misspelling of her name in a government birth document from Lagos.
What was unusual with
the government’s appeal is immigration officials did not challenge Daniel’s
claim that she was a victim of female genital mutilation and domestic abuse,
but contested her credibility on the grounds that she is not who she claims to be.
"I have never seen or heard of a positive
decision overturned completely by the refugee appeal division, where the
pressing concern was on the identity and not on the merits of the
decision," said Daniel’s lawyer, Richard Wazana.
"They did not question the forced marriage,
abuse and violence."
Daniel, a hairstylist
from Benin, arrived in Canada in February 2015 using a false Canadian passport
under the name of Desiree Dobson and filed an asylum claim upon landing at
Pearson International Airport. She was also in possession of a Social Insurance
Number card, birth certificate and driver’s licence under the same name,
according to federal government officials.
Daniel claimed she was
forced to undergo female circumcision in 2012 and was sold by her father a year
later to an older man who sexually, physically and psychologically abused her
before she fled Nigeria with the help of a smuggler. The refugee board
confirmed there was documented evidence of genital mutilation.
Upon her arrival in
Canada, Daniel said she declared her real identity to officials as “Gift
Daniel” and provided a birth document and driver’s licence issued by the
Nigerian government as pro
However, a border enforcement official quickly noticed her birth document spelled her name as
“Gife” while her licence spelled it “Gift” —
setting off questions by Canadian officials over her identity. She was detained
at the Rexdale immigration holding centre for three months until her release on
May 13, 2015, when she was granted refugee status.
Despite concerns over
Daniel’s identity, refugee judge Shamshuddin Alidina, in granting her asylum,
wrote the tribunal "believes, on a balance of probability, that the
claimant has persuasively established her identity as Gift Daniel from
Nigeria."
Daniel has insisted she
only became aware of the typo after it was spotted by the border official, the
different spellings of her name in her identity documents triggered the
government’s challenge to the refugee appeal tribunal to overturn the asylum
decision.
"Identity is clearly an important fact, so
important, that if not established, there is no need to further analyze the
evidence and the claim must fail," the government said in its
appeal. "Absent a properly established identity, a matter of utmost
importance to refugee determination, the claimant cannot be considered to be a
credible witness on the material aspects of her claim for refugee
protection."
In its appeal
application, border enforcement officials also noted Daniel could not provide
them with details on who helped her obtain the false passport she used to come
to Canada and argued that her claim was “assessed on the basis of one facet of
the respondent’s alleged identity: survivor of forced female genital mutilation
and gendered violence. In addition to the error in her name on her birth
document, they said her other ID, including two additional driver’s licences
she later produced and a voter’s card, were not acceptable proof of identity.
Immigration officials
argued the driver’s licences, two expired and one current that
Daniel submitted bear different signatures and that one expired licence has a
picture that does not look like her. The identity issue was further compounded
by a new birth document Daniel later submitted with the correct spelling of her
first name.
The refugee appeal
division (RAD) rejected Daniel’s explanation that a friend forged her signature
on her first driver’s licence because she forgot to sign it on her application.
"The RAD finds that the forged document was
obtained improperly outside of the normal issuing process and cannot be relied
upon for the truth of its content," wrote adjudicator Leonard Favreau.
"Regardless, even if the respondent’s friend was able to bypass the
process required to obtain a driver’s licence, it is clear that the licence
cannot be relied upon for the truth of its content, and as such, cannot be
relied upon as reliable evidence of the respondent’s identity."
The appeal tribunal also
noted the features on one of the licences were faded with muted colours and its
webbing security features were barely visible.
"Fraudulent documents from Nigeria are
available in and outside of Nigeria . . . any printed document can be forged.
Genuine official documents such as birth, marriage, divorce, death
certificates, ID cards, driving licences and passports can be obtained,"
Favreau noted in his decision to rescind Daniel’s asylum. In traveling to
Canada in possession of a false passport and other false identity documents,
the respondent has demonstrated that she has the ability to obtain and the
willingness to use fraudulent documents."
In challenging the
appeal tribunal’s decision against Daniel, Wazana argued at the federal court
that the assessment of his client’s identity was unreasonable and the
adjudicator could not make a decision solely on identity without considering
the credibility of her claims for asylum.
"The RAD was not unreasonable in rejecting
(Daniel’s) evidence and explanations for the irregular manner in which she
obtained the licences. Therefore, the RAD was not unreasonable in concluding
that the applicant’s identity had not been established," Federal Court
Justice Ann Marie McDonald said in her ruling last month.
Daniel, who has been
studying at an adult learning centre toward a high school diploma, said she was
disappointed with the decision and frustrated at what more she could do to
prove she is Gift Daniel.
"I was so happy when my (refugee) claim was
granted. I was ready to move on and start a new life," said Daniel,
sobbing. "It all started with the typo. Tell me if you never make any
error in life, in typing and speaking. This is a huge price for me to
pay."
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