Moncton family apart this Christmas after immigration glitch
A Moncton family will be apart this Christmas after a paperwork glitch with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.
Amanda Doody is celebrating her son Emerson’s first Christmas with him, but her fiance Vincent Muchiri won’t be with them. He was deported to Kenya in September, a few weeks before Emerson was born. He has yet to meet his son.
Doody says she does not know when Muchiri can return to Canada.
“Paperwork is missing,” she said. “I don't know where it is. They won't tell me anything anymore. I'm not authorized to speak even though I'm the one that paid. I can't get any answers. They can't find the file.”
Doody filed for out-of-country spousal sponsorship with Citizenship and Immigration. Prior to that, she applied for an extension. Muchiri was remanded and put in jail for over a month, but the extension was denied and he was deported.
“I'm just preparing that I'm a single mom,” Doody said. “Because I don't have any faith in the system anymore. I tried when I was pregnant, eight or nine months pregnant. I saw the way they treated people. There's no heart. You are a number.”
Kenyan sought refugee status
Muchiri sought refugee status in 2007. He said in Kenya, he was being targeted by a dangerous gang.
“I had a transport business; they burned it down,” he said Friday via Skype. “Because they were trying to extort money from me and I couldn't pay them anymore.”
Back in Kenya, he says he still fears for his life and is in hiding.
“I want to be with my family,” he said. “I can't make it here. I'll be killed. My life is in danger here.”
Friday’s Skype call was also the first time Muchiri laid eyes on his son, but with the poor connection in Kenya, he only saw him for a few moments.
Doody wonders if her son will ever meet his father.
“If it takes three years, I don't think in three years, he's even going to be physically in this world. I don't think so,” she said.
Doody says if the government lost her paperwork, she fears she's quickly running out of time.
CBC News contacted citizenship and immigration but they declined to comment at this time due to their privacy policies.
