Migrante Canada chair battles deportation anew

Migrante Canada chair battles deportation anew

Danilo de Leon

By Nestor Burgos

The Philippine Reporter

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA— A Filipino migrants groups leader is battling deportation from Canada anew after the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) rejected his appeal to remain in the country.

Danilo de Leon, chairperson of the Filipino migrant rights group Migrante in Canada, said he is appealing the IRCC decision rejecting his application for Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) to prevent his deportation.

“We are seeking a judicial review of the decision before the Federal Court of Canada,” De Leon told The Philippine Reporter in an interview.

The IRCC on November 5, 2022 denied the PRRA application and De Leon received the decision on December 29, 2022.

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.

De Leon, who came to Canada in 2009 as a foreign temporary worker and worked for a cleaning company in Alberta, lost his status in 2017 after the IRCC denied his application for a bridging open work permit.

He applied for a PRRA in August last year after he was served a deportation order based on a 2018 exclusion order. The Federal Court of Canada ordered a stay on his deportation on August 28, 2022.

Migrante and other groups and individuals supporting De Leon have called on the government to stop his deportation and grant him permanent resident status, stressing that he faces “grave risk” of political persecution if sent home to the Philippines.

Migrante is among the progressive organizations that have been continuously “Red-tagged” or labelled as “terrorist” by the Philippine government.

Activists and human rights defenders who are “Red-tagged” or linked to communist rebels like the underground Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, have been killed or arrested, international and Philippine human groups have repeatedly pointed out. Those killed and arrested included lawyers, journalists, environmental activists and political dissenters. But many of the cases filed against those arrested have been dismissed by Philippine courts.

The campaign to stop De Leon’s deportation has also cited his years of volunteer work including at the Edmonton General Hospital assisting elderly patients and also at the Edmonton Food Bank.

De Leon said he will also file a request to remain in Canada based on Humanitarian and Compassionate consideration to enable him to be granted permanent residency.

Migrants and other groups are campaigning for the regularization of undocumented or non-status workers in the country and a stop to their deportation.

“It’s not just a form of clemency. Undocumented workers were at the forefront of the labor force during the COVID-pandemic. We continued working on-site despite the risks because we are not entitled to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB),” he said.

The migrants rights groups are waiting for the decision of the federal government on a proposal to grant the regularization or permanent residence status to undocumented workers.