Syrian family reunited in Alberta after nearly a decade of immigration hurdles

“Habibi!” — my enjoy — Attaf Rsheidat cried come out, master with emotion seeing her girl, Baraah Mohammad, son-in-law and ii young grandchildren on Canadian soil for the very first time.

The long-awaited reunion at Calgary International Airport on Monday came nearly a decade after some members of the Syrian family escaped the civil war back home, forced to flee at first to Jordan, where they lived in a refugee camp, before making their way to Alberta.

The night before, she said, she couldn’t sleep as she was thinking about having her family in one place, together.

Speaking in Arabic — her brother Abdullah translating for her — Baraah said this was the best day of her life.

“I feel like I’m dreaming. I can’t believe it’s actually happening,” she said.

Syrian family reunited in Alberta after immigration hurdles

Rsheidat, her husband Tamer and three of their four children had arrived in Canada in January 2016 as government-sponsored refugees under a special resettlement program at the time. 

The Syrian refugee resettlement initiative was a national project, drawing governments, volunteers and sponsors together to bring more than 70,000 Syrians to Canada.

Calgary immigration lawyer Bjorna Shkurti, who worked on Baraah’s case, explained that the refugee program quickly reached its capacity before Baraah and her husband Raed could make their application, leaving the two in Jordan separated from the rest of her family.

In 2017, the couple made a private refugee sponsorship application, but an interview with an immigration officer took a turn when the officer said they had concerns about Raed’s activity on social media, Shkurti explained.

“He tried to answer those questions as best as he could. But unfortunately, the application was refused for reasons that were not entirely clear,” Shkurti said.

Three years later, Shkurti filed a judicial review application for the couple, to challenge the refusal. But that hit a dead end when the pair learned that the sponsorship group had withdrawn their support and decided to sponsor another family instead.

With no more private sponsorship, the judicial review application was discontinued, and seemingly, the couple’s hopes of making it to Canada. 

Back in Lethbridge, Rsheidat and her husband Tamer longed to see their daughter, as Tamer’s health began to decline from internal injuries he sustained from a bomb blast in Syria.

Throughout this period of their lives, Baraah and Raed lived in difficult circumstances, away from their war-torn home country, but still far away from safety in Canada. 

They welcomed their two children, Sima and Ziad, in 2016 and 2020, respectively, but struggled financially living in Jordan, at times relying on assistance from the World Food Programme.

Baraah’s father Tamer passed away in January 2021, without getting to see his daughter again or hold his two new grandchildren.

That year, Baraah’s mother tried to sponsor the family on humanitarian and compassionate considerations, a kind of application Shkurti said is very rare. But in 2022, another immigration officer denied the application.

“We're talking about a situation where initially the family was living in a refugee camp in Jordan,” Shkurti explained, who worked the case pro bono.

“There was discrimination and persecution because they were Syrian refugees. There was no access to essential medical services that Baraah so desperately needed. There was proof that the family was relying entirely, entirely on remittances from the family here in Canada," she said.

“And so seeing that the [immigration] officer acknowledged all of that, but then still said no, that was hard to come to terms with.”

After eight years of applications, rejections and one final sponsorship application later, Baraah and her family’s case was finally approved on humanitarian grounds about three weeks ago.

"It's bittersweet. … It's been a long time coming,” Shkurti said. "I would say that this case is a very good lesson of not giving up when you know that what you're fighting for is the right thing ... And if there were ever a case that deserved relief, this is certainly one of them."

At the airport, Mohammad Mohammad, Baraah’s oldest brother, said he’s recently bought a new home in Lethbridge and renovated a basement suite for his sister’s family to call home. He’s been eagerly awaiting her arrival, buying all new things for Baraah, Raed and the kids.

“I never lost hope. Everyday I said ‘nope, she’s gonna come,’” he said.

Now, he can’t wait to show Baraah and her family the mountains, introduce her to people and show her how safe Canada feels.

As for Rsheidat, she finally feels complete with her family together in one place. Everything now, she said, is “awesome.”

“I’m very happy with her kids, with her husband to build like new future here in Canada,” she said. “I'm very happy ... Now I'm enough."

Journalist

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