OFW Migrante leader set to be deported

OFW Migrante leader set to be deported

Danilo de Leon, Migrante Canada chairperson

By Nestor Burgos
The Philippine Reporter

VANCOUVER—Danilo de Leon’s elder of two daughters has just graduated from college with a nursing degree in the Philippines.

He is happy with this milestone but he has been spending sleepless nights for weeks. He can barely eat.

The father of two and chairperson of the Filipino migrant rights group Migrante in Canada is bracing for his possible deportation to the Philippines on August 29.

“I don’t want to think about it. I remain hopeful that my deportation will (at least) be stayed. I also trust that God will make something good happen,” De Leon told The Philippine Reporter in a telephone interview.

Migrante and De Leon’s friends and colleagues are calling on the government through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to stop the deportation and grant him permanent resident status.

Migrante said De Leon’s also faces “grave risk” and political persecution if deported to the Philippines as head of Migrante, an organization that has been continuously “Red-tagged” or labelled as “terrorist” by state forces.

Hundreds of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, environmental activists and political dissenters in the Philippines have been arrested, killed or attacked after being red-tagged.

De Leon, who came to Canada in 2009 as a foreign temporary worker, lost his status in 2017 after the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) denied his application for a bridging open work permit.

The IRCC cited De Leon’s expiration of his temporary residency status on December 2, 2016.

He was served an exclusion order in 2018 and deportation order this year. As of August 20, these are set to be enforced on August 29.

De Leon has filed an application for a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) in anticipation of his possible deportation.

The PRRA ensures that those removed from Canada and sent to another country are not in danger of torture, persecution or face risk to life or of cruel punishment.

Migrante and other supporters of De Leon are also appealing to Members of Parliament (MP) to help stop his deportation.

“I strongly urge you to put on hold the deportation of Danilo pending the result of an application based on humanitarian and compassionate considerations, or any appeal or review of his case within a reasonable time frame,” according to emails sent to MPs.

They pointed out that De Leon “has worked and lived in Canada for over ten years, pays his income taxes, gives back to his community…”

Aside from actively fighting for migrant workers and rights and welfare, De Leon volunteers at the Edmonton General Hospital assisting elderly patients and also at the Edmonton Food Bank.

Like millions of Filipinos, De Leon left his family to work abroad in the hope of providing them a better future.

He comes from a family of overseas Filipino workers. His father in Saudi Arabia while his sisters spent years working in Japan. A brother also worked in Qatar and Brunei.

He had hoped that he can bring his family with him in Canada after a few years.

De Leon, from Caloocan City in Metro Manila, worked in a cleaning services company in Edmonton City in Alberta province.

But he and other workers shortly filed a complaint against their employer for unpaid overtime work with their working time stretching up to 12 hours daily.

He helped put up a union and their demands were addressed.

As an undocumented migrant, De Leon had to cope with lack of health insurance and had to accept jobs that pay below the minimum wage. He survived with the help of friends and organizations like Migrante.

Despite years of hardship, he does not want to give up his dream of bringing his family to Canada.

“I’m not a burden to Canada. I work and pay taxes,” he said.

The Migrant Rights Network, a nationwide alliance of organizations fighting against racism and for migrant justice, is calling for a stop to deportation of undocumented workers and for the government to put in place a clear pathway for permanent residence for these workers.

An estimated 1.7 million undocumented workers are in Canada, according to the network.