Quebec migrant worker goes from pandemic hero to risk of deportation
Posted June 27, 2022 3:40 pm.
Last Updated June 27, 2022 6:51 pm.
Once considered a guardian Angel in Quebec, working in the province’s long-term care homes during the pandemic, Mamadou Konaté, from the Ivory Coast, is now on the brink of deportation. He’s lived in Quebec for six years and fears there may no longer be legal recourse to prevent him from being deported.
“All the effort we do for this country now they want to deport me, it’s not democratic.
“I’m feeling bad because nothing changed. They said if they had the document today, they were coming to deport me,” explained Konaté.
On Monday, he had a meeting at Immigration Canada that bought him a bit more time in Canada – as they’re looking to get his travel documents together – which he doesn’t have at the moment.
#WATCH: A rally for Mamadou Konaté from Ivory Coast who has lived in Quebec for six years and worked in long-term care homes during the pandemic. He is facing deportation and many outside the Immigration office are calling for justice.
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— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) June 27, 2022
When he arrived in Canada, Mamadou’s refugee claim was rejected under a section of the federal Immigration Act, which states that anyone who participated in the overthrowing of a government cannot seek residency in Canada.
“He’s excluded only on the basis of his membership in a group called Force Nouvelles, which was part of a civil war in Ivory Coast 20 years ago that was trying to overthrow the government there quickly, the government of Cote d’Ivoire,” explained Stewart Itsvanffy, Konaté’s lawyer.
“I believe that eventually, common sense will prevail and that they will give him his papers, allow him to stay here. But there’s a lot of their policies of exclusion and turning away people who are involved in any sort of armed struggle, even against dictators like Saddam Hussein, who are really terrible people.
Mamadou Konaté, worked in long term care homes during the pandemic, is now at risk of being deported from Canada. (Photo Credit: Alyssia Rubertucci)
“I never commit any crime in this country I work in. I don’t have any problem with anybody,” said Konaté. “It’s not only me, more migrant people facing the same problem like mine.”
Mamadou Konaté, worked in long term care homes during the pandemic, is now at risk of being deported from Canada. (Photo Credit: Change.org)
More than 40,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Prime Minister to act for Mamadou, someone who worked through COVID and even contracted the virus
“I help Quebec, I continue to help Quebec, I almost died.”
CityNews reached out to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), which said in a statement, “IRCC is unable to comment on specific cases without written consent due to privacy legislation.
“For asylum claims made in Canada, all eligible asylum claimants receive an independent and fair assessment on the individual merits of their claim at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). The IRB is an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal which decides asylum claims. Under the law, anyone claiming asylum in Canada has the right to due process.”
Before adding there is a list of inadmissible reasons, which includes: medical reasons, financial reasons, misrepresentation and having an inadmissible family member to name a few.
Immigration Canada may take a few months to serve him with a deportation notice, but he and his lawyer will keep fighting in court.
“For all the sacrifice we do for this country. This is not the way to thank me.”
