Between Oran and
a hard place

>> Sympathizers deplore the potential
deportation of non-status Algerians

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Nassim Aoudia arrived in Canada in November 1994. He has a job, pays his taxes and lives with his wife and children in St-Leonard. If there is one thing that terrifies the soft-spoken Algerian native, it’s being sent back to his mother country. And because of a decision made by federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre in the spring, that is now possible.

On April 5, Coderre announced that a five-year-old moratorium on deportations to Algeria was being lifted, and Algerians without Canadian citizenship, refugee or landed immigrant status are now vulnerable to being sent back there. This despite the fact the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) is recommending against making Algeria a holiday destination. DFAIT’s country travel advisory on Algeria, available on its Web site as of April 1, warns, “Canadians should defer all tourist travel to Algeria. Other Canadians should evaluate carefully the implications for their security and safety before deciding to travel to Algeria, due to continuous terrorist activity in some parts of the country…. Violence has occurred in many parts of the country, both urban and rural… Visitors should also be aware that travel restrictions imposed on the diplomatic corps in Algeria may hinder the Canadian Embassy’s ability to respond quickly to emergency situations outside the capital.”

The message being, “Don’t go if you can avoid it.” But Canada is getting ready to send people, some of whom have been here close to 10 years, back to one of the most violent countries in the world.

The Comité d’action des sans-status, which represents about 1,000 Algerians at risk of being deported, as well as some allies among the activist crowd, are trying hard not to let this happen. They feel being sent back to Algeria is like dropping them back into hell.

“Everyone sees that peace has not been re-established,” Aoudia says. “The violence has not decreased. On the contrary, it is getting worse.” The country’s civil war has spiralled out of control since 1991, when the government decreed void election results that would have seen an Islamist party victorious. So far, it’s claimed an estimated 150,000 lives.

Capitalism and its borders

The situation has not gone unnoticed by busybodies in the activist scene. Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) has taken up the cause of the Algerian deportees, and links the lifting of the moratorium to the whims of global capitalism. A demonstration is planned for this Friday, July 26, in front of Citizenship and Immigration’s Montreal offices.

“This is kind of a follow-up to the anti-G8 protests in Ottawa,” says CLAC spokesperson Stefan Christoff. “The idea of ‘no one is illegal’ [the theme of one of the Ottawa marches] relates very much to being anti-capitalist. We’re seeing a border crackdown. The borders are open for the free flow of goods and services but not of people. We see it, especially in the case of Algeria, as racist.”
To CLAC, the decision to lift the moratorium on deportations is akin to admitting Algeria is no longer that dangerous a place. Christoff says that until April, Algeria was on the same list of countries, including Somalia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, deemed too dangerous a destination for deportation.

More damningly, though, is the fact that the moratorium was lifted just as Prime Minister Chrétien was visiting Algeria as a run-up to the G8 Summit last month. “Obviously,” Christoff says, “this is not a decision made out of understanding or humanity.”

But just because the moratorium has been lifted doesn’t mean the 1,000 non-status Algerians will be packed onto the next plane to Algiers. “The ministry made the announcement but said they are not in any great rush,” says Rivka Augenfeld, president of the Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes. “Anyone can be called in for a pre-removal risk assessment, but can apply for a stay of removal and an officer will assess the case.” Any deportations to Algeria, Augenfeld says, will not happen for some time. Augenfeld, however, still feels that Immigration and Citizenship’s policies are “indiscriminate,” and believes that their decisions are not based on a human rights perspective.

The CLAC-Comité d’action des sans-status demo takes place on Friday, July 26, at 5:30 p.m. at 1010 St-Antoine W. :