Let the health worker preparing for deportation stay, Dix tells Ottawa

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Claudia Zamorano, a hospital housekeeper, her husband, their nine-year-old daughter, and her husband’s mother and brother fled threats of violence in their hometown of Colima in 2017, but their refugee claim has been denied.

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Zamorano works full time at the Royal Columbian Hospital and her husband, Andrés, is a carpenter.

His deportation is scheduled for December 19, despite the fact that Immigration Canada has not yet processed his application for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, people in Canada and British Columbia have trusted healthcare workers like Claudia Zamorano,” a spokesperson for Dix’s office wrote in an email.

“After years of helping keep BC families safe during their time of need, we owe it to the Zamorano family to keep them safe and we strongly urge the federal government to suspend their deportation.”

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The provincial call comes days after the Hospital Employees Union, which represents Zamorano, and local migrant rights groups urged federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos to intervene and ask the Immigration Minister, Sean Fraser, who approved the family’s request.

Last week, Duclos was in Vancouver meeting with provincial and territorial health ministers to address the healthcare crisis across Canada. When asked about the Zamorano case, he said he would refer to Dix for comment.

Migrant rights advocacy group Sanctuary Health says it makes no sense to deport an essential worker and her family in the midst of the same health care worker crisis Duclos was in town to discuss.

“The federal government prides itself on being compassionate and welcoming to immigrants,” Omar Chu, a member of Sanctuary Health, said in a news release.

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“And yet this December, six days before Christmas, we will be deporting a health worker, her daughter, who has only known the Canadian school system, and her family back to Mexico, where their safety is at risk. . It does not make any sense.

The federal government has said it will increase immigration to alleviate labor shortages caused by the crisis in health care and other essential sectors.

Zamorano started out as a hospital housekeeper at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in November 2020. “It was terrifying for me and my family,” she said. “But I had to.”

There was a special category of refugees, now closed, for health workers. But in any case, workers like Zamorano, who do not work directly with patients, were not eligible.

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Meena Brisard, secretary and business manager for the Hospital Employees Union, said the immigration minister might approve Zamorano’s residency application “to keep another needed health worker on the job.”

“We should do everything we can to keep healthcare workers like Claudia.”

The union and Sanctuary Health are also calling on Fraser to reopen the healthcare worker refugee route and expand it to include essential healthcare workers like Zamorano.

“Claudia has been on the front lines of infection control, cleaning and disinfecting hospital rooms to keep other healthcare workers, patients and community members safe from COVID,” Brisard said. “She has put herself and her family at risk of contracting COVID for three years to help keep Canadians safe.”

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The union and Sanctuary Health have helped coordinate more than 1,200 letters to Fraser’s office since Zamorano’s deportation date was set in August.

Delays in the processing of refugee, permanent resident, and work-study visas have affected newcomers to Canada since the start of the pandemic.

Even if his application is approved, the cost of the years-long process at Zamorano has been immense.

“It’s so stressful,” he said.

Throughout her family’s six different applications and appeals, she began to suffer from anxiety attacks that made her whole body shake. She works full time and has been handling all the paperwork for all five family members.

Zamorano began taking anti-anxiety medications that have helped with the attacks, and both she and her daughter see counselors to deal with their anxiety.

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But last Monday he suffered dizziness at work while talking to a patient and mopping the floor in the room. Zamorano collapsed outside the room and was checked on by a nurse.

“I know it was stress,” Zamorano said. “I’m trying to block the thoughts in my mind, but it’s hard.”

Zamorano says her daughter understands what she’s going through, but it’s hard to explain why they might have to leave the only home she’s ever known.

At this time, his attorney has requested a stay of his deportation until at least the family’s permanent residency applications are processed.

“We hope that the community can help us,” Zamorano said. “We are going to do our best, we are going to work hard for this country. We are not bad people. We are doing everything we can to improve this community.”

Moira Wyton works for The Tyee