Canada cancels deportation of Filipina activist after public outcry

Migrant rights activist Gina Bahiwal can remain in Canada until her application to stay on humanitarian grounds is decided on by federal authorities. CBC

Prominent migrant worker activist Georgina Gina Bahiwal learned Jan. 13 that Canada’s federal government has canceled the order for her deportation.

Bahiwal was to be deported this Sunday Jan. 15 at 9:30 p.m. Upon hearing about Bahiwal’s imminent deportation, hundreds of people across Canada wrote letters of support to cancel her deportation.

According to her lawyer, Richard Wazana, the cancelation of Bahiwal’s deportation allows her to remain Canada until her application for permanent residency on humanitarian grounds is decided on.
Bahiwal lost her status under the former Tory government’s now rescinded “four-in-four-out” rules that banned migrant workers from Canada for four years after having worked here for four.

Migrant rights advocates credit Bahiwal with helping ban recruitment fees and ending the four-in-four-out rule. She was even invited to speak before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa last year that led to the revocation of the four-in-four-out rule.

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