Emergency Community Rally to stop the deportation of RJ to India
When: Thursday, November 9, 2023, at 10:30 ***
Where: Immigration Minister, Marc Miller’s office: 3175 Saint-Jacques Street, Metro Lionel Groulx
Who: Organized by South Asian Diaspora Action Collective, Immigrant Workers Centre and Solidarity Across Borders, and friends and community members from Parc-Extension.
See Facebook event for details
RJ is facing deportation to India this Friday, November 10, 2023 despite the fact that he is facing danger in India. Join us to oppose the deportation and demand status for him and for all non-status people in Canada.
RJ came to Canada five years ago fearing for his life. He sold everything he owned back home and ran to this country for safety. Though he has been here for five years, the threats to his life in India have not gone away. To send him back now is a cruel and unconscionable decision to make. And it is a decision, let us be clear, that one person has the power to change – Immigration Minister, Marc Miller.
Back in Northern India, RJ had no recourse but to leave the country in face of threats to his life from people from the ruling party in the country, the fascist Hindutva ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He left India following ongoing and sustained violence where police also did not provide him protection as the political party goons had influence over them as well. He had nowhere to go because the ruling party is a national party and no matter which state the same network is present.
India is not a safe place for RJ to return to. The ruling BJP party to which his aggressor belongs has its tentacles across India and is widely known for using extreme violence against those who oppose it in any form. RJ needs to stay here to protect his life and continue to support his sister.
The changed immigration laws are such that RJ was not yet eligible for a pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA). Therefore, Canada is sending RJ back into an extremely hostile situation without having assessed this risk. He was arrested on Thursday November 2nd and detained, and his deportation is set in just a week.
We call upon the Immigration Minister, Marc Miller, to grant him time so that his risk can be assessed. We also call on the Minister to regularize his status so that he can stay in Canada in safety instead of deporting him to a hostile environment where he cannot simply live in another state or jurisdiction without being followed by the goons associated with the ruling party.