Kenyan Man Receives Temporary Residency Just Before Deportation

Just one day before his scheduled deportation to Kenya, Charles Mwangi was granted temporary residency in Canada.

Mwangi, 48, fled Kenya five years ago due to persecution for being bisexual, as same-sex relationships are criminalized in his home country. After years of protesting, petitioning, and filing an emergency application with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, he was granted a one-year temporary resident permit by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada.

In a statement released on Saturday, Mwangi expressed relief, as he had been set to be deported on Sunday morning. The father of three, who sought asylum in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighborhood, has worked on the front lines of the pandemic as a personal support worker and as an advocate with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

“I’m so happy today, we have won. My deportation has been cancelled and I’m calling on the government to regularize anyone who is undocumented because this journey is not a joke, it’s a nightmare,”

Earlier this week, Mwangi and his supporters protested his deportation outside the office of his local MP, Judy Sgro, fighting for his right to stay in Canada. He also presented a petition signed by over 4,600 people, urging the federal government to intervene and halt the deportation.

“Thank you to everyone who supported me and took action,” Mwangi said.

Diana Da Silva, an organizer with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, celebrated the decision but criticized the difficulty of the fight.

“Stopping Charles’s deportation is a victory for migrant and queer justice and the power of community action. But we shouldn’t have had to fight this hard,” Da Silva said in a statement. “We call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fulfill his promise and regularize the status of all undocumented people.”

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Trudeau acknowledged the need for better support for undocumented immigrants contributing to Canadian communities, though no timeline has been set for when these changes will be implemented.