Shafiqa Jalali tries to stay within earshot of the phone so she won’t miss her son when he calls home.
The Toronto mother never knows when Mohammad Younesi might be allowed to make a call from Texas, where he has been detained pending deportation to Afghanistan.
“There’s no way to prepare for his call,” Jalali said through a Farsi interpreter. “One time we didn’t hear from him for two weeks, we got really worried. We didn’t know what happened to him, if he got into trouble or was deported.”
While the call only lasts two to three minutes each time, it has been the only connection she has had with Younesi, who has been held for almost two years in the U.S., where he was transiting through to join his family in Canada.
Erin Simpson, Younesi’s lawyer, said the 29-year-old man is eligible to seek asylum in Canada, due to family ties, but Ottawa has refused to issue a temporary resident permit to enter the country. Without the permit, U.S. authorities won’t release him.
The family is appealing the refusal, and the case has been slowly winding through the Federal Court, pending a hearing. No date has been set. Meanwhile, Younesi is coming up on his second anniversary of being detained, at the IAH Polk Secure Adult Detention Center, north of Houston.
Jalali, who was granted asylum in Canada with the rest of the family a year ago, said her only hope now is that Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab would compassionately issue Younesi a temporary resident permit to let him into the country.
“The minister is a mother herself,” said Jalali. “She should understand how hard it is to see your child suffering in a detention centre. I wouldn’t mind if he was free in the U.S. Even though we are in one country and he is in another country, that is not the problem.”
Before the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, Younesi, who studied economics in university, had worked on a project funded by the International Organization for Migration, part of the United Nations. He later was a manager with the Razi Social Development Organization for impoverished women and girls.
In 2023, he was kidnapped, detained, tortured and subjected to forced labour at the hands of the Taliban. He managed to escape and fled to Dubai via Iran, and then to Brazil on a humanitarian visa available to Afghans. Guided by human smugglers, he trekked through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico before he crossed into Arizona in September.
The regime then went after his family, forcing them to flee Afghanistan as well. But they all made it to Canada via the U.S. and have been granted asylum.
The family’s supporters have raised $30,000 to cover legal fees and advocated for Younesi’s reunification with his family in Canada.
Recently, Romero House, a Toronto refugee shelter that has assisted the family, wrote to the immigration minister’s office, pleading with her to issue the temporary permit and a one-time travel document for Younesi to come to Canada.
In June, the Trump Administration launched the first flight to deport migrants to the Central African Republic as part of a third-country deportation program. Fears are growing that U.S. authorities may attempt to remove Younesi to any of the countries with such arrangements with the White House, said Francesca Allodi-Ross, Romero House’s executive director. (It could also deport people to Afghanistan.)
She said there are a lot of concerns over Younesi’s mental and physical well-being, given the prolonged detention, limited communication and being in a cell with seven detainees and no one speaking his language.
“This is a person whose life we can save very easily,” said Allodi-Ross. “There’s a lot we cannot do around the world. This is something that we could do that would have long-term benefits for the rest of his family integrating into Canadian society who are already here.”
The Immigration Department declined to comment on Younesi’s case because the Star was unable to reach him to sign a waiver to let officials speak to the media about his case.
Previously in refusing the family’s request, immigration officials said a temporary resident permit can be issued only in “exceptional circumstances,” or on occasion, when compelling Canadian interests are served. It pointed out that there is not an established program to provide refugee protection for those who are outside of Canada and who are not referred by a partner organization such as the United Nations Refugee Agency.
“It is a very unfortunate fact that there are many persons in Canada (citizens, permanent residents, persons with protected status, etc.) who have close family members in precarious situations abroad, and for whom there is no obvious pathway to Canada for those relatives abroad,” an immigration officer noted in a refusal letter.
“I note that while the applicant’s situation is precarious and that there are family members in Canada, in regards to fairness for all applicants, it is a situation unfortunately faced by the family members abroad of many others in Canada, and unfortunately for whom Canada does not currently have an established pathway to Canada.”
Younesi’s lawyer said that’s why the family and their supporters are begging the immigration minister to step in.
“Please for the love of God, grant this guy a temporary resident permit,” Simpson said. “The minister can grant it now without waiting for the (court) hearing.”
