Media Release: UN Calls on Canada to Halt Abdilahi Elmi’s Deportation

Monday, August 26, 2019

MEDIA RELEASE

August 23, 2019

 

Media Contact: Emmanuel Onah, 780-281-0627 

 

UN Calls on Canada to Halt Abdilahi Elmi’s Deportation

 

Edmonton, Toronto - The United Nations Human Rights Committee today called on Canada to halt Mr Abdilahi Elmi’s deportation while his case is under review by the UN Committee under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Mr. Elmi’s deportation is currently scheduled for August 26th. Like the well-documented case of Mr. Abdoul Abdi, Mr Elmi was given refugee status as a child and then taken into state care which failed to apply for proper immigration documentation for him. Mr. Elmi left Somalia as a child, has no family there and does not speak Somali. 

 

“Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale has the power to stop Mr Elmi’s deportation, and he must use it. It is clear that the primary reason that Mr Elmi faces deportation is because of collective systemic failures of the justice and child protection system, and these wrongs must be righted, starting with letting Elmi stay,” says Emmauel Onah of African Canadian Civic Engagement Council, one of the organizations part of the Justice for Elmi Campaign. 

 

“Canada has an admirable track record of respecting interim measure requests from the United Nations Human Rights Committee to suspend removal while that Committee considers whether Canada’s intended action complies with its international human rights obligations. We would call on Canada to continue that tradition by respecting the request for interim measures issued today,” added Professor Audrey Macklin, University of Toronto Chair in Human Rights Law. 

 

The full UN decision can be downloaded at: http://bit.ly/ElmiUN 

 

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