‘We had to escape’: Growing number of Somalis face possible deportation over false documents, advocates say
[Scamming and lying are endemic among many self-styled “refugees”.]
Kaif Ali is only 23, but she’s spent the last five years putting her life back together — starting with escaping war in Somalia, to putting her faith in a smuggler to find safety, to landing in Canada and learning English, studying nursing and becoming a front-line health-care worker.
Now the life she’s built could soon fall apart — again.
That’s because the Canadian government now claims Ali is not, in fact, Somali. And she’s not alone.
Ali, a Toronto resident, told CBC News she escaped Somalia with her younger sister after her father and older sister were targeted and killed. The two paid a smuggler, who arranged for them to flee with fake Kenyan passports. It’s a choice she says she was forced to make in order to get to safety.
“Nobody just wakes up one day and they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m running away from the country,'” Ali said. “We’re escaping in a short period of time. Something happens and, within a month or two months, you’re in hiding.”