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."
Source: Toronto Star
0 comments: