Nigerian family fights removal order while 16-year-old fears return of cancer

Jacob Barker · CBC News

A Nigerian family in Windsor, Ont., is pleading with the federal government to let them stay in Canada not only for what they say is their personal safety but also so their daughter, a 16-year-old cancer survivor, can continue medical treatment.

“I’m just pleading for safety and my health because I still have ongoing treatments and checkups,” Amirat Fayemi said. 

“If we were to [be sent] back home, I have a lot of problem back home because my father is really in danger right now .... and I don’t think it’s a good option to go back home.”

Amirat is in remission after being diagnosed with leukemia in 2022, but is now being treated for a new issue concerning her blood — and fears it may be a sign that the cancer has returned. 

The family has disobeyed one request to leave the country.

While the girl’s doctor has signed off on a letter stating she should not fly, another doctor who looked at the case on behalf of immigration authorities disagreed.

“I’m not saying she shouldn’t do her work,” Fayemi’s stepmother, Rita Hotonu, said of their dealings with a CBSA officer reviewing their case.

“But sometimes, I don’t know, maybe experience or empathy… should be applied.” 

A history of illness 

Amirat first got sick in Nigeria. The family says she was misdiagnosed. 

“I was told I may have had a flu or other issues. When the doctors could not find the right diagnosis and cure me, they told my father that I was possessed,” Amirat recounted in an application put before the minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Her cancer diagnosis only came while the family was vacationing in the U.S.. She fell ill and was told she had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

“I was in hospital for eight months and I almost died,” she told the IRCC. 

The move to Canada came following her treatment in a hospital in Austin, Texas, during which she experienced acute heart failure. 

“It was on one of the days in the hospital I heard about Canada being a humanitarian country,” Hotonu said in an interview with CBC.

“It gave me hope, like OK, it could be a place that would give this girl a life.”

The family says the incident fell as a crisis for them was breaking out back home.

Amirat’s father, an opposition member in the Nigerian government in Lagos, was kidnapped and almost killed for revealing corruption within the government there and had gone into hiding, according to the family. CBC has not independently verified the claims.

Upon arrival in Canada in January of 2023, the family applied for asylum. Their claim was refused, along with subsequent appeals. 

“Whatever we gave to the government was the truth,” Hotonu said.

Now, the family’s last-ditch effort to remain in Canada is before IRCC, requesting permanent residency on what’s known as humanitarian and compassionate grounds. 

But according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the filing of that application isn’t a reason to delay the family’s removal. 

In fact, the family was supposed to report for removal on Sept. 8. The results of a medical review undertaken by CBSA stated that there was nothing in Amirat’s test results that warrants a deferral of deportation, and there was no evidence that would preclude her from being monitored and receiving treatment in Nigeria.

"The risk presented in the deferral request is not new and has already been denied in the numerous risk assessments," the decision on the family's deferral request reads. It said there wasn't "sufficient medical evidence" that Amirat needs urgent medical support at present.

But Amirat and her family did not show up for the flight. 

Instead, Amirat was at Windsor Regional Hospital’s cancer clinic, undergoing her first phlebotomy treatment — a procedure meant to reduce iron levels in blood. 

“If I were to be on that flight on the 8th. If she didn’t have the medical complications and had to start her treatment that Monday, I don’t know what would have become of me and the kids," said Hotonu.

In March, Amirat’s doctor warned her ferritin levels were “markedly elevated” and wanted to investigate whether this was due to the treatment Amirat received after AML treatment or whether it was an indicator of a new health issue. 

She also said that air travel should be avoided. 

And in a letter written just days before the departure was scheduled, her doctor stated it “was critical to begin the process of trying to remove iron stores from her body,” and that the process continue until it is below a certain level.

Community support

The heads of two Nigerian community groups in Windsor support Amirat, her mother and little brother in their quest to stay in the country — pointing towards Hotonu’s work as a PSW and their contributions to the community. 

“The CBSA is doing their job, however, you have to look at this case from another angle,” said Olufemi Olusanya, president of the Yoruba Community Organization of Windsor.

“This life has to be saved.”

Don Alwellifebi, president of the Nigerian Canadian Organization of Windsor, says there have been other cases with people from Nigeria facing health issues facing deportation immediately following their treatment. 

“When someone is going through a situation, you have to support him to come out of that situation, then you can deal with the law.”

CBC did reach out to the office of Conservative MP Harb Gill, the family’s member of Parliament in Windsor West.

While no one responded to our request, his office sent the family an update showing most of the assessments for the case have not begun yet, and that the family should send medical information and request urgent and expedited processing of their matter. 

Meanwhile, the IRCC says it would not comment on the family’s case directly due to privacy concerns, despite the family’s consent.

“A decision to remove someone from Canada is not taken lightly. Every individual facing removal is entitled to due process, but once all avenues to appeal are exhausted, they are removed from Canada in accordance with Canadian law,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, the family is holding out hope for a resolution, but the threat of an imminent deportation is still hanging over them. 

“Please Canada, restore my child’s hope to live is all I can say,” Hotonu said.