Canada suspends deportation of Quebec mother and her 3 kids after UN intervention

The federal government has suspended the deportation of a mother and her three children living in Trois-Rivières, Que., shortly after the United Nations Human Rights Committee asked it to.

Arlyn Huilar and her three kids, who are six, nine and 11 years old, were scheduled to be deported to the Philippines Tuesday. Her husband and their father, David Ajibade, is still in Nigeria, where he was deported late last month.

Sunday, when Huilar and the children got home from attending church, they learned the Canada Border Services Agency had cancelled their deportation pending a ruling on whether they can become Canadian permanent residents on humanitarian grounds. 

"It was a shock and [the kids] were jumping for joy," Huilar said over the phone to CBC Monday.

The family's lawyer, Sabrina Kosseim, made a request for the UN Human Rights Committee to intervene in the family's case immediately after Ajibade was deported June 28. 

The committee informed her late last week that they had accepted her request and would be asking Canada to stay the deportation of Huilar and the children. 

"It's clear there are threats to fundamental rights in this case," Kosseim said, namely, the children's physical and mental health rights.

The family had applied for refugee status in 2019, but were rejected last year. Huilar is from the Philippines and Ajibade is from Nigeria.

The couple met online and were married in Nigeria in 2009. Their children faced racism and hostility in the Philippines, then narrowly avoided a kidnapping in Nigeria, Kosseim said.

The family's hope of finding a safe haven in Canada ended when the CBSA ordered their deportation to two different continents this spring. 

Hours before Carlsen, the youngest child, was set to be deported with his father to Nigeria — while the rest of the family was going to be sent to the Philippines — a federal court judge ruled he should not be separated from his two older siblings and mother.

'It's not fully over'

Ajibade was then deported alone to his home country and the deportation of Huilar and their children was delayed.

Kosseim had argued in court that separating a six year old from his older siblings, in addition to separating the family as a whole, was unusually cruel. 

In an interview Monday, the lawyer said Ajibade was struggling without his family. 

"He is obviously very relieved for them that they'll be able to stay in Canada for the time being. But it remains that the family is still separated right now. It's a family that's always been united, always been together. So we are hoping that they will be reunited not too long from now," Kosseim said.

Huilar, Ajibade and their children arrived in Canada via Roxham Road in May 2019 and soon settled in Trois-Rivières, a city 130 kilometres east of Montreal. As they awaited news of their refugee claim, the parents moved up in their jobs. They made friends at their local church and the children settled into French school. 

Ajibade, who is an engineer by training and worked as a foreman in Quebec, said Trois-Rivières was the first place the family had felt at home. In March, they applied for permanent residency on humanitarian grounds.

But those applications can take two years to process, and they were still waiting when Ajibade was deported to Nigeria last month.

"I know it's not fully over, but to me it's like an ounce of opportunity and hope and it's worth holding on to," Huilar said.

The federal government did not immediately respond to CBC News's requests for comment before publication Monday.