Refugee claimant who cared for elderly in Quebec care home during pandemic fights deportation

As more flights to foreign countries resume, a refugee claimantwho toiled in three long-term care homes at the height of the pandemic worries his deportation could be imminent.

Mamadou Konattended to and cleaned the rooms of elderly patients in the Montreal area who had tested positive for COVID-19.He caught the disease in late April 2020 while doing so.

But even thoughthe province brokered a deal with the federal government to guarantee residency for many of the asylum seekers who laboured in Quebec's beleaguered long-term care homes, Konat faces deportation as soon as flights to Ivory Coastareonce again allowed.

"We migrants helped this country stay afloat haven't we paid enough during this pandemic? Many of us were among the victims of COVID-19," Konattold a crowd gathered in front of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's riding office on Crmazie Boulevard in Montreal Tuesday morning.

"We are good for work, but never enough to obtain dignity."

Konat was arrested last year after he and his lawyer tried to apply for residency and a stay of deportationon humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

He was released from an immigration detention centre in the fall on $7,000 bailwithconditions that forbidhim from working.

Before all that, Konat had gone underground. His first refugee application was found "inadmissible" because of an obscure section of Canada's Immigration Actthat statesanyone who participated in the overthrowing of a government cannot seek residency in Canada.

'A model immigrant'

"He's been targeted by Article 34 of the law in a really unjust fashion," Konat's lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, said at the protest.

"He's a model immigrant. He belongs in this country, but they made him inadmissible because of his involvement in the civil war in Cte d'Ivoire 20 years ago and it's just profoundly unfair."

Istvanffy called the section of the Immigration Act a "really weird law that makes a lot of people inadmissible."

Last fall, he told CBCNews, "It's basically the clause under which we would make Nelson Mandela inadmissible."

"Anybody who joins the resistance against the Nazis would be inadmissible to Canada under this clause of our law. It's a crazy clause. In a democratic country, we shouldn't have it, but it's there in the law."

Konat arrived in Quebec more than fiveyears ago and worked several essential jobs in remote parts of the province, including felling trees for Hydro-Qubec and sorting trash in waste management centres before taking on work at long-term care homes last spring.

Despite all the work Konat has done in the province, he is not eligible to apply for Quebec's permanent residency program for asylum seekers who worked in health-care during the pandemic because of his inadmissibility under the federalImmigration Act.

Even if the Canadian lawhadn't excluded him, his chances would have been slim. Manypoint out that Quebec's parameters are too narrow, leaving out many who were on the front lines during the first wave.

Frantz Andr, who advocates for and assists asylum seekers in their applications for residency, said heknew of only a few people who had been accepted by the program.

"In some ways, it's criminal to have so many people who have contributed to saving lives, who should be eligible, and are unfortunately being denied," said Andr, who was also at the gathering for Konat outside Trudeau's office.

Quebec's Immigration Ministry said Tuesday it hasfinalized 1,013 of the 1,355 applications to the program, leading to 2,057 Quebec selection certificates being handed out.

The selection certificate is part of an agreement the Quebec government has with Ottawa, giving it a say in who gets permanent residency in the province a decision ultimately left up to the federal government. It's unclear whether the 342 applications left over have been rejected or simply not processed yet.

OfKonat's case, a spokesperson for the Quebec Immigration Ministry, Flore Bouchon,said, "Quebec does not have the power to intervene in a person's case or to prevent removal orders against them."

Bouchon said the government is "sensitive" to his situation but won't comment further to avoid confidentiality issues.

CBCNews also reached out to the federal Ministry of Immigration and Refugees but has not yet received a response.