Two men who stowed away on a cargo ship bound for Montreal are to be held in detention another week while the Canada Border Services Agency tries to confirm their identities.
An Immigration and Refugee Board member rendered that decision Tuesday at hearings for Said Abaoud and Rachid M’Sadek.
The two are among nine men arrested Thursday at the Port of Montreal. The pair said they couldn’t find work in Morocco and decided to hide in a container on a ship they thought was sailing to Spain or Italy.
Seven of the detainees are claiming asylum. Abaoud and M’Sadek initially refused asylum and expressed a desire to go back to Morocco, but Tuesday M’Sadek recanted and said he hadn’t understood the concept of asylum because of a bad translation, and now wants to stay in Canada.
Unfortunately, he missed his chance, said Jacqueline Roby, a CBSA spokesperson. “A person must claim refugee status under interrogation by the CBSA. You can’t do it after,” she said.
M’Sadek claims he had tried to leave Morocco before but was always caught, although he didn’t specify by whom.
The nine hid on a container ship that left Casablanca, Morocco, at the end of September. Once out to sea, they were discovered by crew members, who wired the Canada Border Services Agency. The men were arrested when the ship docked in Montreal last week.
When the men were found, they claimed to be from Iraq and gave false testimony about their names. Later, all admitted to being Moroccan.
None of the men has been able to produce valid and legitimate proof – either a current passport or a government-issued identity card – that they are who they say they are.
The seven other stowaways who are seeking asylum were ordered on Friday to be detained for a week.
Tuesday, M’Sadek said through an Arab/French interpreter that he could not find work in Morocco and lived with uncles who beat him, and that he wanted to stay in Canada.
While certain hardships, like persecution, listed in the Geneva Convention can qualify a claimant for asylum, a bad economy and a lack of jobs aren’t among them, said Robert Gervais, of the Immigration and Refugee Board.
If in a week the Border Services Agency is still not satisfied about the identities of the men, they could be detained even longer, he added.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/stowaways+held+another+week/3664607/story.html#ixzz12uCXy6q2
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