"All you Guyanese does want to go Canada under refugee status. But not this time, you not getting through..." Mr._Lam-sorry

Fleeing crime, family finds refuge in Canada

by

Raynier Maharaj

Caribbean Camera, dated June 10, 2004

Repeated attacks by criminals kept a mother and her three children as virtual prisoners for months inside their East Coast Guyana home, with the children too scared to even go to school.

And now they've found the security they failed to get in their homeland, after a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board judge determined that they were "clearly" a family in need of
protection, which Canada was obligated to provide to them under the Geneva Convention.

The decision last Thursday brought an end to a nightmare existence for the Singh family at the hands of criminals in Good Hope, Mahaica. Single mother Drupatie Singh eventually fled Guyana on January 1, 2003, with her three children Rawattie 17, Gaitree 18, and Jagjiet, 9 in tow.

On January 3, after consulting with lawyer Ishwar Sharma of the law firm Sharma and Sharma, they filed a refugee claim.

"I supported their decision to go this route after hearing their story and realizing they were people in dire need of protection," said Sharma. "If Guyana could not offer them such protection, then surely Canada would."

The Singhs' story began in January 2000, when the family was robbed at their home in Good Hope. Then in August 2002, 3 armed bandits stormed their home again, this time robbing
them of household appliances, jewelry and money. The family was then threatened that if they called the police, they would be harmed.

Drupatie Singh said that after the armed men left her home, she called the police, few days after the incident, the police went to the school the children were attending, and took them to the police station where two suspects in the crime were sitting on a bench.

"The police wanted my girls to identify 'these men who were sitting them watching them ... I was horrified when I found out. The children were intimidated, and after that incident, they were very frightened. They would get nightmares about the bandits coming after them ... my youngest was
too afraid to even go to the toilet alone, or stay in a room in the house by himself."

So scared were the children that they refused to go to school, fearful that they would be attacked as they walked the street, Drupatie said. Gaitree, who was in fifth form, was about to
write the important CXC exams, and her missing school was taking a serious the house ... the bandits knew I was a single mother, that I had two teenaged daughters and a young son,"
Drupatie said. "We were really scared that they would come back to harm us."

Their appeal for protection to the authorities, however, fell on deaf ears. Their horrific situation even made the front page of local newspapers, but still no offer of security was forthcoming.

After four months of "living like prisoners in our own home", Drupatie said, she decided that enough was enough.

"I had to protect my kids, so I made the decision to leave everything behind and just flee to Canada, even though I had no relatives here."

Once in Toronto, lawyer Ishwar Sharma counseled the family, and walked them through the process for refugee status. Last June 2, Drupatie Singh was allowed to present her case before
the Immigration and Refugee Board.

After hearing the submission and viewing documents that substantiated the case, the judge delivered an immediate decision from the bench that the Singhs were in need of protection.

Said Sharma: "It still remains a puzzle why the Guyana government continues to fail to protect its
citizens. But when such a deterioration of law and order happens in a place like that, it is countries like Canada to offer them that protection.

He added: "This decision does not mean, however, that all Guyanese can claim refugee status in Canada on the basis of the crime situation. Each case has to be determined solely on the merit of the individual circumstances".