Vancouver refugee claimant linked to guerrilla group loses bid to stay
Credit to Author: Kim Bolan| Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2020 23:36:12 +0000
A Colombian refugee claimant living in Vancouver says he only pretended to be a member of a banned guerrilla group so he could get a job and stipend being offered to the former fighters in his homeland.
Luis Felipe Garces Caceres wanted the Federal Court of Canada to reverse an Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) ruling that he was inadmissible to this country because he claimed to be in a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.
But Justice Roger Lafrenière rejected Caceres’ application for a judicial review of the earlier decision barring him from Canada.
Lafrenière said in a decision released Monday that the immigration appeal division member who deemed Caceres inadmissible considered all the evidence filed on his behalf and made a reasonable conclusion based on it.
The board member “could reasonably find on the evidence before it that the applicant was not under any duress when he registered his name as a FARC member and that he willingly participated in the FARC demobilization,” Lafrenière said.
“The applicant’s motivation for participating in the alleged charade does not detract from the fact that there were reasonable grounds to believe that he was a member of FARC.”
After more than five decades of fighting, FARC reached a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016, agreeing to demobilize thousands of its members.
Caceres arrived at the Canadian border in April 2017 and made a refugee claim, failing to mention any link to FARC.
The Canada Border Services Agency sent his fingerprints off to the U.S. and was informed that Caceres was on a guerrilla membership list.
When a CBSA officer later interviewed Caceres, he claimed that “he was a young, unemployed person in Colombia” who pretended to be a member of FARC so he could get a job and benefits the government was offering after the civil war ended.
He said “he was registered as a demobilized FARC member and obtained a monthly allowance.”
After Caceres’ first immigration hearing, the adjudicator accepted his explanation, noting that “the story the applicant told to the CBSA officer was believable and consistent.”
The Minister of Public Safety then successfully appealed that ruling, getting it set aside last May and prompting Caceres’ application to the Federal Court.
Lafrenière also said the IAD member appropriately concluded Caceres “did not appear to face serious and imminent physical harm when he decided to declare himself as a member of FARC, nor was there any evidence of attempts to leave the situation. He chose instead to continue receiving financial benefits for over a year as a demobilized member.”
Caceres also claimed that he was denied procedural fairness as the IAD determined he lacked credibility based on written submissions and documents without him getting to testify in person to respond.
Again, Lafrenière dismissed the argument, noting that Caceres’ lawyer at the time “made an informed and calculated decision not to call any witnesses for the purpose of the appeal.”
“It lies ill in the applicant’s mouth to now seek to take issue with the very procedure he agreed to because the result is not to his liking,” Lafrenière said. “The applicant was fully aware that the minister was concerned about his membership in FARC, and he had a full opportunity to provide documentary evidence and submissions in response.”
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