Serbian asylum seeker leaving Canada but hopes to
return
Photo: Andrew Vaughan/CP
Sanja Pecelj pauses during a news conference at St. Marks Anglican Church in Halifax on Thursday.
Sanja Pecelj pauses during a news conference at St. Marks Anglican Church in Halifax on Thursday.
Canadian Press
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Ottawa challenges sanctuary claims
Year of living in church ends
Serbian refugee granted reprieve
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Ottawa challenges sanctuary claims
Year of living in church ends
Serbian refugee granted reprieve
Refugee told she must leave
Halifax — A Serbian woman who sought sanctuary
for more than a year in a Nova Scotia church basement said that she will leave
Canada but that she expects to return to the province within months as an
immigrant.
Sanja Pecelj, 34, told a news conference in
Halifax on Thursday that she is negotiating for a visa with several countries
where she could stay.
After she leaves, she said she will apply to
return to Canada as a permanent resident.
“I hope everything is going to work out. It
wasn't really my preference that I have to leave the country and come back, but
I'm willing to do so because I really want to stay in Canada,” she said, sitting
at the front of the church where she spent 441 days in hiding.
Ms. Pecelj said she is placing her hopes for
return in a provincial program that sponsors employable immigrants.
Lee Cohen, Ms. Pecelj's lawyer, said she has
already been nominated by the province, all but assuring her of being allowed
back into the country.
“The federal government will not overturn a
provincial nominee as long as there are no medical or security reasons to do
so,” he said. “Getting a provincial nominee is a virtual guarantee she will be
admitted back into Canada some time in the future.”
He said she may have to stay outside the country
for four to nine months while Ottawa checks her background.
He Cohen also said there was the “ticklish
question” of what country would accept her while she was awaiting federal
approval. He said he is in talks with both the Austrian and the Mexican
embassies, but neither has granted her a visa.
He said Immigration Canada has agreed not to
force Ms. Pecelj to return either to Serbia-Montenegro or to Kosovo in the
former Yugoslavia.
Ms. Pecelj has said that because she is an ethnic
Serb who once worked for the United Nations in Kosovo, she would be in danger if
she had to return.
She sought sanctuary in a church basement in
Halifax last year when her application to stay in the country as a refugee was
rejected.
In June, shortly after her application to stay on
humanitarian grounds was denied, she was given a 60-day stay of deportation by
Immigration Canada.
Liberal Leader Paul Martin, during a federal
election campaign swing through Nova Scotia, promised to review her
case.
Both Mr. Cohen and Ms. Pecelj said they were
disappointed that the review process had failed, and accused Ottawa of not
sincerely studying her refugee claim.
Her grace period expires Sunday, but Mr. Cohen
said immigration officials and the RCMP have promised there are no plans to
deport her as long as she is making efforts to obtain a visa.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/cgi-bin/news/news.cgi?id=2184714847
Theglobeandmail.com - Aug 13 2004 5:37:24 GMT
