Thousands petition Canadian government to bring back Libyan family ‘stranded’ in Malta

At least 10,000 Canadians have signed an online petition to have two Canadian-born Libyan boys - sons of a Libyan couple who had their visa applications to return to Toronto turned down four years ago - to be allowed back into Canada.

Young boys Adam and Omar Benhmuda are currently living in Malta with their parents. Their father, Adel, is unable to work given that he has no work permit by the Maltese authorities, and their case is fast becoming a much talked-about news story on all Canadian news networks.

The family had been deported to Libya four years ago by order of a Canadian court.

Adel Benhmuda had been arrested by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's security officials, who imprisoned and tortured him because of his connections to a family member who was a vocal opponent of the deposed regime.

But in a scathing decision late last month, Toronto Judge Mary Gleason ruled that visa officials at Canada's embassy in Rome were biased in their assessment of the family's application to return to Canada and had placed erroneous information on their file.

The Judge ordered that the information be expunged and that the case be sent to another visa post for reassessment within 90 days.

The Benhmuda family had originally come to Canada in 2000, saying they felt threatened by Libyan authorities because Benhmuda's brother was linked to a group that opposed the Gaddafi regime.

But eight years later, following a series of hearings, immigration authorities rejected their claim and three weeks after that they were deported to Libya, even though the two youngest boys had been born in Canada.

Fled to Malta

After Adel's release, the family paid a bribe and fled to Malta, where they lived in a refugee camp for almost two years. There they were recognised by the UN High Commission for Refugees as legitimate refugees.

When UNHCR officials saw that two of their sons were Canadian, they asked Canada to take them back, and last year Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney said authorities would do everything they could to help the family and promised they would offer "every humanitarian consideration".

But a visa officer with the Canadian embassy in Rome, Laurent Beaulieu, had a much different take. He alleged that the family had been a drain on Canada's health and social service system and would again be dependent on social assistance, a suggestion Judge Gleason said was wrong.

During his initial time in Canada, Benhmuda had a job with an optician and had supported his family.

"The analysis also fails to discuss the applicants' request for [humanitarian] consideration, the situation in Malta, the family's ties to Canada and the children's best interests.

Petition

Meanwhile, a Mississauga teacher who taught the family's two boys has set up an online petition urging the federal government to bring the family back to Canada as soon as possible.

Ingrid Kerrigan says she was "shocked" when immigration officials turned down the family's claim to remain in Canada.

Kerrigan and others in the school and neighbourhood raised money to hire a lawyer to try to get the family back.

"They want more than anything to come home," Kerrigan said. "All any of their four sons knows is Canada. That's where all their memories are, their childhood, it's where their best friends are still waiting for them.

"They miss snow, they miss hockey, they miss skating, all those Canadian things," she said.

So far more than 10,000 people have signed the online petition.