Fliss Cramman, Ontario woman facing deportation, to stay on detention list

A hospitalized woman facing deportation to the United Kingdom after spending much of her life in Canada has been ordered to remain on a detention list for another 30 days.

Fliss Cramman, who is being treated at a Halifax hospital, has been held since June when the Canada Border Services Agency discovered she did not have Canadian citizenship.

The 33-year-old mother of four was brought to Canada when she was eight years old, but her parents failed to obtain her citizenship and she is due to be deported by Dec. 16.

In 2014, she was convicted of offering to traffic heroin and sentenced to 27 months in prison, and she was detained again when the border agency looked into her citizenship.

Advocates have said her health is fragile following several surgeries and she should be allowed to stay in Canada, while being taken off the border agency's detention list.

However, at a detention review hearing on Friday, her lawyer John O'Neill recommended she remain on the detention list for another 30 days while advocates work to secure private funding for her health-care needs, as federal agencies would not pay for her health care should she be released.

Cramman's legal team is preparing an application for permanent residency under humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

• 'I've been here 25 years of my life. My kids are here, my family is here, everything I know is here'