http://www.canada.com/maritimes/news/story.html?id=41ee68db-ca7a-42f2-930f-9
b5b9d5c48cb
Canadian Press
June 3, 2004
Serb loses appeal to stay in Canada
-"I cannot pretend this is not affecting me," the ethnic Serb told a Halifax
newspaper earlier this week. "I'm a human being."
HALIFAX - A 34-year-old woman from Kosovo who has spent more than a year
living in the sanctuary of a Halifax church has been told she cannot remain
in Canada.
Sanja Pecelj's lawyer confirmed on a local radio station Thursday that
Immigration Canada has denied his client's application to stay in Canada for
humanitarian reasons.
The refugee claimant has been living in a small bedroom in the basement of
an Anglican church since early last year, unable to leave for fear of being
deported.
She arrived in Nova Scotia legally in 2000 to work at the Pearson
PeaceKeeping Centre in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.
She has said that unrest and renewed violence in Kosovo would make it unsafe
for her to return.
Pecelj was denied refugee status by Ottawa a couple of years ago.
In a recent interview, Pecelj said waiting for an answer from the government
had become excruciating.
"I cannot pretend this is not affecting me," the ethnic Serb told a Halifax
newspaper earlier this week. "I'm a human being."
There have been various rallies and demonstrations of community support for
Pecelj, who has worked as a translator, a teacher and a waitress before
confining herself to the church.
She has even said she'd been offered a job by a local company if she was
allowed to remain in the country.
Her lawyer, Lee Cohen, told the radio station Thursday he planned to
continue the fight to keep Pecelj in this country.
He said he would appeal directly to the immigration minister of her behalf.
Pecelj is one of several high-profile church sanctuary cases that have made
headlines in recent months.
Earlier this year, police entered a Quebec City church and seized an
Algerian man who had taken refuge in the church from a deportation order.
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