Mom Facing Deportation To China Fears For Daughters
By TOM GODFREY
Toronto Sun
SUN MEDIA
April 25, 2008
A pregnant mother with two Canadian daughters says she faces a life of hardship if deported to China, owing to the Communist country's heavy-handed one-child policy.
Yen Chen, 33, was called to an immigration office on Airport Rd. on Monday to prepare for her return to China, immigration consultant Roy Kellogg said yesterday.
Chen and her husband, Ming Zhang, 36, came to Canada in 1997 and made failed refugee claims alleging they were fleeing China's one-child law. They left behind an older daughter with relatives.
Immigration has yet to call Zhang, a butcher, to be sent back, and Chen won't be deported until she gives birth because she cannot fly in late pregnancy, Kellogg said.
The couple will be forced to return to China with daughters Betty, 10, and Wendy, 3, who are in a Toronto school.
“The two girls and a baby are Canadians and are being removed to China, where they would be stigmatized,” Kellogg said.
Canadian-born children are not only stigmatized in that society but will not get health coverage or obtain Chinese citizenship, he said.
But Chen said she's not leaving her new baby or daughters in Canada if deported.
“My daughters have a lot of friends here and there's no way we can go back to China,” she said. “We have been here for 11 years and have established ourselves.”
Chen, who works as a dim sum server, said she'd like to bring her daughter, Jin Ting, 12, here if the family is allowed to stay.
Betty's school friends have sent letters in support of the family staying, she said.
“I am scared for my parents because I've never lived in China,” Betty said.
Canada Border Services Agency officials said they were looking into the case.
