Praying for OK to stay
Ordered deported, man takes refuge in church
By LAURA CZEKAJ, SUN MEDIA
Original Story from ottsun.canoe.ca
Shree Kumar Rai, 44, has been given sanctuary by Ottawa's First Unitarian Congregation after exhausting Canada's refugee appeal process and being ordered deported. Rai says he will be tortured if he returns to Nepal, which he fled more than 10 years ago. (ERROL McGIHON, Sun Media)
At the end of the hallway at First Unitarian Congregation is a door marked Private Apartment.
It's in this makeshift bedroom within the confines of this west-end church that Shree Kumar Rai, a Nepalese refugee, has sought asylum since Feb. 27 from the powers that have ordered his deportation.
It's the second time this room, this church, this congregation, has sheltered a refugee.
"I feel safe when I come here," says Rai, 44, in halting English. "Right now I can't go out of this compound because out there is danger for me, because some police can catch me and put me in detention."
It's only in here that Rai is a free man. But church officials are hoping Rai's voluntarily confinement will be brief, something they know from past experience is unlikely.
In 2004, the congregation took Bangladeshi refugee Samsu Mia under their wing. It took 18 months before the federal government relented and allowed Mia and his family to stay in the country.
On the day he was to be deported, Rai defied the order and arrived at the doorsteps of the Cleary Ave. church.
If he were to return to Nepal, Rai says he would be arrested and tortured for his involvement in human rights campaigning and his alleged collaboration with opposition political parties.
Rai left a wife and five-year-old son behind when he fled his county and arrived in Canada in June 1996.
Twice his application for refugee status has been struck down by the Immigration and Refugee Board, which found there wasn't enough evidence to prove Rai's claims that he would be tortured.
Joan Auden, president of the first Unitarian Congregation's board of directors, says Rai's fears of torture have been investigated and appear to be well-founded.
"Morally, we could not turn our backs on somebody who would be in danger," she says.
Congregation member and former Ontario NDP leader Michael Cassidy says precedence would imply that the practice of church-offered sanctuary would be respected by officials.
ADDRESS THE GAPS
But policy makers must address the gaps in immigration legislation if they want churches to stop stepping into the breach, he says.
A spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada says Canada has an international reputation for having a fair refugee system. However, Lisa Borsu said it's important for the integrity of the system to be upheld.
An appeal of Rai's deportation will be reviewed by the Committee Against Torture of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees.
But, while hopeful of the outcome, Rai knows it could be months before he can leave the church.
"There's a lot of people supporting me," he says. "I found they are very good people and kind people. But staying inside is very difficult."