ISTANBUL, Turkey, August 30, 2002 — Iranian Christian Mahmoud Erfani received notice through a post office in central Turkey yesterday that Canadian immigration authorities in Ankara have accepted his family's application for permanent residency in Canada.
In a letter dated August 23, Canadian visa officer Judy Aubut declared that following the family's July 30 interview in Ankara, "... after carefully assessing all factors relative to your application, including the additional information you provided at that time, I am satisfied that you are a member of the country of asylum class."
"I am therefore accepting your application," Aubut wrote. The visa officer specified that the family's eligibility for application was based on Section 147 of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Erfani's first application to the Canadian Embassy in Ankara had been rejected in April by a Turkish visa officer, who stated the family did "not satisfy the definition of Convention refugee or member of the country asylum class."
For his appeal interview last month, Erfani produced new evidence regarding Iranian government persecution of some of his relatives after he fled the country. In addition, a court indictment from the Turkish city Nevsehir confirmed that the Erfani family had been harassed there last April by an Iranian Muslim for having left Islam to become Christians.
"We are so grateful!" Erfani told Compass by telephone from Nevsehir yesterday. Earlier this week, he had reported that due to the extreme summer heat, his wife had become "somewhat worse." Now in a wheelchair, Mrs. Erfani was diagnosed eight years ago with advancing multiple sclerosis.
Erfani and his wife, Atefeh, had become baptized Christians 21 years ago in the Iranian city of Mashhad, where since the Islamic revolution a convert pastor has been executed and several other converts jailed for apostasy. In the spring of 1999, the family was evicted from their home on a former church compound and subjected to growing hostility by agents of the secret police and paramilitary Muslim vigilantes of the Islamic regime.
After fleeing with their three daughters across the Iranian border to Turkey in July 1999, the couple was turned down three times by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who declared them ineligible for official refugee status. Officials examining their case noted that Erfani was unable to provide any documents to "prove" his claims of overt and ongoing religious persecution.
Canada, however, remains one of the few Western governments willing to accept immigrants who have not been able to obtain formal UNHCR refugee status.
The Erfani family has been pledged full sponsorship by an Anglican church in Toronto who has pursued their immigration case since June 2001. After the family's rejection this past April by the Canadian Embassy in Ankara, their plight was also taken up by Paul E. Forseth, a member of the Canadian House of Commons.
Erfani said that he also received yesterday detailed instructions on the required medical examinations required by Canadian immigration for all five members of his family, including a doctor's preliminary exam, laboratory tests and chest X-rays.
According to established government policy, the final formal acceptance of the Erfani family by Canadian Immigration cannot be issue until these medical procedures have been completed.
Source: Barbara G. Baker, Compass News
|
