Family gains residency after 5 years

A family that lived in fear of deportation for five years, seeking sanctuary in a Winnipeg church basement part of that time, hasfinally gained residency status.

"I honour and I respect Canada more than anything. I've been here so long, I think the people matter the most and I've met so many people in Canada that they're like family," Rubab Hassan, the 17-year-old daughter of Raza Hassan and Sarfraz Kausar, told CBC News on Wednesday.

"It's a relief to be able to stay."

Raza Hassan and his wife, along withtheir six children, had lived in the Crescent Fort Rouge United Church from August2006 to February 2008 to avoid deportation to Pakistan.

Theyclaimed they wouldface religious persecution in the predominantly Sunni Muslim country.

Hassan is a Shia Muslim while Kausar is Sunni. The two major denominations of Islam have been in heated conflict for years and Hassanwas beaten while in detention before the family fledin 1998.

Theylived in the United States beforemoving to Canadain 2003, wheretwo of the couple's children were born.

The family sought refuge in the church after a federal court initially rejected their refugee claim based of religious persecution.

They then applied to stay in Canada on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, with the church lobbying the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration for landed immigrant status.

While the application on compassionate and humanitarian grounds was under review in November 2006, the family had asked the government for freedom to leave the church sanctuary and live in Winnipeg.

That was turned down.

While living inside the church, the children were home-schooled by volunteers who also looked after the family as a whole.

In 2007, the school-aged children started attending classes at a regular school after the family was given assurances by government officials that doing so wouldnot open them up to detention by immigration authorities.

Those excursions to and from school were the only times the children were allowed outside of the church. However, the boundaries of that freedom were widenedin February 2008, when the government allowed the family to leave the sanctuaryand rent a home.

Their case remained under review until a few days ago, when they were given permanent residency status.

"It's been exciting [to have the freedom]. It's like, when we entered the church, we were pretty much locked in," Rubab Hassan said.

Shecompared the imposed sanctuary of a room in the churchto being like living in a bird cage. Thefreedom to rent a house was like moving from the cage but being on a dog leash, she said.

"We were free but we weren't really free," she said. "Now we're off that leash and we finally feel like we can take in that fresh air."

Hassan said there are times from the church room that shedoesn't want to remember because there wasstress, a lack of personal space, and some fighting among the family members.

But overall, the time allowed everyone to bond and get to know each other better, she said. And it was remarkable to see the lengths other people in the community went to, to supportthe family.

"It is extremely touching to have so many people who are not related do so much for us. We're never going to forget anyone who gave us so much support," she said.

Hassan is hopingto apply for full citizenship in about three years.