Filipino-Nigerian family being deported from Canada to 2 different countries

A Filipino-Nigerian family in happier times: David Ajibade, right was deported to Nigeria on June 29. His wife, Arlyn Huilar, left, has been given a little over a week to prove her youngest son, Carlsen, can be deported with her to the Philippines along with her two other children | Contributed

A father of three from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada was deported to his home country of Nigeria while his wife and the children are awaiting deportation to the Philippines, hoping the siblings would not be split up.

Filipino national Arlyn Huilar has until July 7 to prove to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that the youngest child, Carlsen, 6, is a Filipino citizen and can be deported to the Philippines with her and the two other kids, Kaela, 11, and Bradley, 9.

Her husband, David Ajibade, had appealed CBSA’s deportation order, which would have split up their children, with their youngest being deported to Nigeria with him, Verity Stevenson of CBC News reported.

Ajibade was flown from Quebec to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Thursday, June 22, where he was expected to board a plane to Ethiopia before catching another flight to Nigeria, according to CBC News.

Huilar and Ajibade were married in Nigeria in 2009 after meeting on a matchmaking site. However, the Filipino-Nigerian family experienced racism in the Philippines. They moved to Nigeria, but there they narrowly avoided a kidnapping and were extorted by police, their lawyer, Sabrina Kosseim, said.

The family moved to the United States before crossing the border to Canada in 2019 to seek refuge. Huilar and Ajibade first worked at a meat processing plant then found better paying jobs. Huilar worked in data entry at an aviation firm and Ajibade was a foreman on nights and weekends.

They applied for asylum, but their request was denied twice. The CBSA ruled that they faced discrimination but not persecution. The agency ordered the family deported to two different parts of the world.

Their lawyer Kosseim appealed to both the United Nations Human Rights Committee as well as Federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser to intervene on behalf of the Filipino-Nigerian family, but apparently to no avail.