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Algerian who led antideportation fight in Canada is locked up in U.S. immigration jail |
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Reuters/Christinne Muschi
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MONTREAL, Quebec—Mohammed Cherfi was deported to the United States on March 5. The Algerian citizen, a member of the Action Committee of Those Without Papers, was handcuffed and forcefully removed from the St. Pierre United Church in Quebec City, where he had taken refuge from immigration cops three weeks earlier. Cherfi is being held at a “pre-deportation center” in Buffalo, New York, awaiting a March 17 hearing. He is threatened with removal to Algeria, where his supporters say he could face torture and “disappearance” at the hands of the government.
Cherfi, 35, has been the main spokesperson for a longstanding fight by hundreds of refugees against the Canadian government’s effort to deport them back to Algeria. In October 2002 Ottawa was forced to allow more than 90 percent of these refugees to remain in Canada. Dozens of others—among them Cherfi—were excluded for so-called technical or legal reasons, or are still waiting for an answer. On March 9, actions demanding Cherfi be repatriated to Canada were organized in several cities. In the photo above, Cherfi’s wife, Louise Bovin, addresses a rally of 150 people that day in front of the offices of Immigration Canada in Montreal. The sign next to her reads “Canada, land of asylum?” To find out more about Mohammed Cherfi’s fight, call (418) 262-0144 or write to solimo2004@yahoo.fr
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