Stateless man gets chance from court to live in Canada
Toronto, Dec 15 (IBNS): Francisco Suarez Abeleira, a stateless man, who was born in Mexico has been granted a chance by the court to live in Canada permanently, media reports said.
Abeleira was born in Mexico and moved to the US and later shifted to Canada. However, his birth in Mexico is not confirmed may be because his name was not registered since Abeleira's parents fled to the Franco dictatorship in 1950s.
The court has quashed the decision of immigration officials who had refused to allow the 66-year old man to live in Canada. The court sent the case back to reconsideration.
The court even said the man must be granted a chance to start his life afresh and stay permanently in Canada considering there is no ground to deport him.
Abeleira, who was born in Mexico, reportedly spent his adulthood in the US and then was caught by the American immigration officials in 2009.
After the release from the immigration detention, he crossed the border and entered into Canada to seek asylum later.
Justice E. Susan Elliott said: "The only four countries to which Mr. Abeleira has any connection at all (Canada being the fourth such country) do not want him because he has no status in any of them. Yet, the Immigration Minister says Mr. Abeleira has not shown sufficient humanitarian and compassionate grounds to be permitted to apply for permanent residence from within Canada."
"He must therefore apply for that status from another country. The conundrum is that there does not appear to be any other country who will accept him. Not only is Mr. Abeleira in a state of legal limbo, there is no way out of it."
"He appears trapped in an endless loop of ‘you have to leave Canada to apply for permanent residence,’ however ‘you can’t leave Canada because no country will take you," the justice was quoted by Toronto Star.
Abeleira, who had lost his parents at an age of 3, was brought up by neighbours and then fled to the US. He used to smuggle goods at US-Mexican border and sell American goods to Mexico.
He moved to the US in 1975 and bought a birth certificate of a legal US citizen who died in 2008.
With the help of the assumed identity, Abeleira completed his high school diploma and got a bachelors' degree in 1989.
Both the Immigration Department and the minister refused to speak to Toronto Star.
(Reporting by Suman Das)
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