How Canada smuggles Somali deportees into Somalia

[Safferz]

Listened to this program on CBC radio earlier today, it was quite shocking:

 

 

Saeed Ibrahim Jama left Edmonton two years ago, forced out of the country in a deportation to a place he had never lived. His story takes us into a gray zone, where Canada - acting on what it says are issues of public safety goes through elaborate efforts to send deportees to a country that would never take them officially, effectively sneaking them in with no travel documents. Today we bring you a special documentary that investigates Canada's curious practices in deportations to Somalia.

 

Today we're revisiting a story we first brought you two years ago. Saeed Ibrahim Jama, was a permanent resident in Canada. But he faced deportation to Somalia following a 27-month prison sentence for drug trafficking and resisting arrest.

 

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places on the planet. The Al Qaeda-linked group Al Shabaab fights a bloody insurgency in the South... warlords and clans fight the insurgents ... And the country has struggled without a fully functioning government for more than two decades.

 

We spoke to Saeed Jama in 2012 from prison, while awaiting deportation.

 

At that time we asked: Should Canada be deporting even convicted criminals like Saeed Jama, into such a dangerous, lawless country? Today we're looking at a different question: How does Canada deport a person into such a dangerous, lawless country?

 

CBC Radio documentary producer John Chipman has spent the past year investigating what exactly happened in Saeed Jama's case. And what he discovered was that his deportation was far from routine... it involved a kidnapping, a ransom, and a gun-toting gang. But even more troubling is that his chaotic deportation was not unique.

 

Canada Border Services Agency - or CBSA - say that Somalia is so dangerous federal regulations prohibit Canadian employees from flying there with deportees. The agency's solution has been to hire pilots or airlines to fly deportees without legal paperwork into Somalia from a neighbouring country such as Kenya. Official travel documents are impossible to come by given the country's unstable government.

 

We're devoting a full hour to what John learned about how Canada deports people to Somalia with John Chipman's two-part documentary, To No Man's Land.

 

We requested an interview with Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, who's responsible for the Agency that oversees deportations. He declined our request.

 

A CBSA spokesperson responded to a list of submitted questions, and we are still waiting for a response to our request for an interview later this week with CBSA President Luc Portelance.

 

Last week, Mohammed Barre Bulle moved out of the refugee camp in northern Kenya where he's been living for the past several years. He is moving back to a Somali village close to the border.

 

[DoctorKenney]

There should be no sympathy for Somalis like this. These men weren't Canadian citizens and when they committed their crimes, the Canadian Government wasn't obligated to keep them in the country. Since they weren't even citizens

 

Drug trafficking? Assault with a weapon?

 

No sympathy for men like this. I don't like how we have sympathy for criminals but not for their victims.

[Tallaabo]

<cite>

@DoctorKenney

said:</cite>

There should be no sympathy for Somalis like this. These men weren't Canadian citizens and when they committed their crimes, the Canadian Government wasn't obligated to keep them in the country. Since they weren't even citizens

 

Drug trafficking? Assault with a weapon?

 

No sympathy for men like this. I don't like how we have sympathy for criminals but not for their victims.

I agree with you on this. These are hardened criminals who abused the hospitality of the Canadian people. So I really would not have any sympathy for them even if they were deported to Antarctica.

[ElPunto]

Yep - these qaashin should be treated like this and worse. I can't believe how Somalis keep ripping off gaalo - 25k to transport these idiots from Nairobi into Somalia. I'll do it for 10k - how do I get that deal??

[Khayr]

 

These are hardened criminals who abused the hospitality of the Canadian people.

 

I wonder if other "criminals" from say places like Europe and Russia, if they get the same treatment of deportation? Does anyone know?

 

Btw, being told that the only prospects you have are in low paying jobs is not hospitality.

Its called marginalization and blatant racism.

 

 

 

[DoctorKenney]

<cite>

@Khayr

said:</cite>

I wonder if other "criminals" from say places like Europe and Russia, if they get the same treatment of deportation? Does anyone know?

 

Btw, being told that the only prospects you have are in low paying jobs is not hospitality.

Its called marginalization and blatant racism.

 

Authubilah, you must be kidding me.

 

What's with you and always being a contrarian, always talking about "marginalization and blatant racism"....as if that justifies the actions of these two Somali men, who sold drugs and assaulted people with weapons?

 

I've been to Somalia. I've seen the job market in Somalia, where young men struggle to make a living and provide for their families. Yet these 2 Somali men lived in Canada--an industrialized and wealthy nation--and they had the opportunity to make an honest living and actually work. But they chose to get involved in drugs and crime.

 

Wallahi mac sakoor. These men deserve what they got. Not only are they criminals, but they're unbelievably dumb. They didn't recognize the good opportunity when they saw it in front of them. And now they're paying the price for it.

[Safferz]

<cite>

@Khayr

said:</cite>

I wonder if other "criminals" from say places like Europe and Russia, if they get the same treatment of deportation? Does anyone know?

 

No they don't Khayr, which is why this CBC investigation was done and aired. Deportations to Somalia are unique and unlike deportations to anywhere else. The question isn't about whether it's right to deport, it's about the ethics of deporting people to dangerous situations where they have a high chance of being killed (particularly by a country that does not believe in the death penalty for even its worst criminals), and the shady logistics of carrying out deportations to Somalia. Canada does this without the cooperation of Somali governments, essentially smuggling people illegally into the country through Kenya, and because Canadian agents are not allowed to go to Somalia, they pay Kenyans $25k to complete the Kenya-Somalia leg of the trip. As the case studies investigated in the program show, there's no mechanism for Canadian agents to confirm whether the deportees have arrived there safely, and in many cases the deportees have been left somewhere else (like the guy dropped off by the Kenyan plane in the desert and attacked by hyenas) or kidnapped upon arrival.

 

SOLers can type whatever the hell they want about how criminals should be shipped off to Antartica, but Canada is a civilized country with legal and ethical principles it abides by.

[DoctorKenney]

Is it Canada's fault that the Somali Government hasn't set up the infrastructure necessary to accept deportees? Not even the Bosaso Regime or the Hargeisa Regime is willing to accept these deportees, so what is it that you expect the Canadians to do? Keep these men indefinitely in Canada until Somalia gets it's act together and set up a competent and effective national government?

 

 

[Khayr]

The question isn’t about whether it’s right to deport, it’s about the ethics of deporting people to dangerous situations where they have a high chance of being killed (particularly by a country that does not believe in the death penalty for even its worst criminals), and the shady logistics of carrying out deportations to Somalia

 

What ethics of deportation are there?

Do you think that a Homosexual Male Russian would get a deportation Order? The answer is a resounding No and the fact that Russia is a stable country would have nothing to do with it. It wouldn't be a politically justifiable move to deport someone that has the support of lobbiest (LGBT groupies).

Now, deporting a Somali Male on the other hand is a win-win political move. After all they have three bad traits - Black Male; Muslim and Somali.

[Safferz]

<cite>

@Khayr

said:</cite>

What ethics of deportation are there?

Do you think that a Homosexual Male Russian would get a deportation Order? The answer is a resounding No and the fact that Russia is a stable country would have nothing to do with it. It wouldn't be a politically justifiable move to deport someone that has the support of lobbiest (LGBT groupies).

Now, deporting a Somali Male on the other hand is a win-win political move. After all they have three bad traits

- Black Male; Muslim and Somali.

 

Khayr, that is exactly correct -- it is unconscionable for a country like Canada to deport someone where they may be killed, that includes a 20something year old Somali who has never been to Somalia but is sent to Mogadishu. Canada does not hand over prisoners for prosecution in places that have the death penalty for this exact reason.

[ElPunto]

^Anyone may be killed anywhere including in Canada. This is not a prosecution - this is a deportation - whether a country has the death penalty as part of its criminal code has nothing to do with legitimate deportations. If an illegal alien in the US can be deported to dangerous parts of Mexico and Columbia with a murder rate many times higher than Hargeisa, Bosaso or even Xamar - what makes it unconscionable to send a criminal, non-citizen Somali to his home country? There is a certain illogic to this argument.

[DoctorKenney]

Safferz, that's an invalid comparison.

 

These men weren't being deported to Mogadishu where certain death awaited them. Mogadishu is "dangerous", sure. But it wasn't like the Somali Government was waiting for his arrival so they can immediately hang him.

 

People "may be killed" anywhere in the world, that isn't a policy that the Canadian Government follows or should follow. Next thing you know, Canada won't be able to deport so-and-so because he "may be killed" in whatever country he originates from. Whether he comes from Russia or The Congo or Thailand or Colombia.

[Khayr]

Saff,

 

Let me ask you this – Is there are a sterotype called “Angry Black Man”? How about Mandingo?

Somali Pirate? Shabbab Terrorrcist?

This move is blatant racist and no one will care to do anything about it unless its being done to

a White Female; a member of the LGBT community or an ancestor of the Cohen Livor legal team

That is the truth of the matter.

[Dhagax-Tuur]

Khayr has a point. Deportation of this kind of any of the group he mentioned would have caused public uproar.

 

Kuwani waa looma ooyaan. Canadians have history of BBQ Somalis anyway, what is with harmless deportation to their homeland, eh?

[OdaySomali]

Serves them right. These kind of miscreants are the kind of people who give Somalis in the diaspora a bad name. Good riddance. How hard is it not to sell drugs or break the law? It is their own bad behaviour that lands them wherever they end up.