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2019 RLLR 170

Citation: 2019 RLLR 170
Tribunal: Refugee Protection Division
Date of Decision: February 15, 2019
Panel: M. Vega
Counsel for the Claimant(s): Latoya Graham
Country: Egypt
RPD Number: TB7-13974
Associated RPD Number(s): TB7-14095
ATIP Number: A-2020-00518
ATIP Pages: 000437-000441

DECISION

[1]     MEMBER:        This is the decision in the claims with respect to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX. The principal File Number is TB7-13974.

[2]     The adult claimant claims to be a citizen of Egypt and her son XXXX XXXX XXXX claims to be a citizen of United States of America. Both claimants are claiming refugee protection pursuant to Sections 96 and 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

[3]     This decision is being rendered orally today; a written form of these reasons may be edited for spelling, syntax, grammar; and references to the applicable case law, legislation and Exhibits may also be included.

[4]     Furthermore, the adult claimant Ms. XXXX is the designated representative of her minor child XXXX. In this claim, I have also taken into consideration the Chairperson’s Guidelines with respect to women refugee or gender refugee claims and this is Guideline 4.

[5]     I find that the principal claimant is a national of Egypt as is established by her testimony as well as by the supporting documentation filed, namely, her passport which is found in Exhibit 1, and from this evidence I conclude on a balance of probabilities that she has Egyptian citizenship.

[6]     With respect to XXXX, I find that he is also a citizen of the United States of America and I conclude this from his American passport as well as his American birth certificate, both the documents have been filed as Exhibits.

[7]     I find, Ms. XXXX, that you are a Convention refugee for the following reasons, and I also find that your son, XXXX XXXX, is not a Convention refugee and I will explain it a little later.

[8]     In this case, the issue of the claimant’s identity is partly that she is not only an Egyptian citizen but she is also, and perhaps foremost, she is identified as a Palestinian, and that is because both her parents were and all her family members are Palestinians, and one could say that then the nexus could be either under the issue of national or rather, because it is not a State, the lack of nationality, but it is in her case as in other persons who are Palestinians of Palestinian heritage, it is part of their identity.

[9]     In the case of the claimant, she is not a stateless Palestinian because she has the nationality of an Egyptian citizen, but this claim is based on the fact that the treatment that she has received repeatedly over the years has been that of imputed or that she is imputed as though she were a stateless Palestinian even though she is not.

[10]   So, the Basis of Claim Form contains the allegations of this case, I have briefly touched on it. The claimant was married once before. It was in that marriage that she acquired her Egyptian citizenship. She is currently divorced from that husband, she had a child with that first spouse and she later, after the divorce, married her current husband.

[11]   Her current husband is also of Palestinian origin and lived also in Saudi Arabia, and that marriage was arranged by her mother, but nonetheless that husband or current husband has no legal status in Egypt. He is not a part of this claim. His circumstances have been testified to by the claimant as through his circumstances she has been able to speak about how persons that have no other citizenship or that are stateless such as her husband, how they are treated, and also I mean her mother is also in a similar situation but they are not part of this claim.

[12]   So, the claimants left Egypt, and in 2017, went to the United States of America where she stayed for 1 day and then crossed into Canada or tried to, at the border she made her claim for refugee protection. She had a sister in Canada who has been living here for 21 years, and it was on the basis of having a sister here that she was allowed into Canada with her son to make the claim.

[13]   Her testimony as well as her Basis of Claim Form speaks about many times being harassed and humiliated at checkpoints because her identification indicates that she is of Palestinian origin and not of Egyptian origin.

[14]   She indicates that on her visits when she would leave Egypt and return either to Saudi Arabia mostly, then she would face about twice a year for about 4 years she said she would face hours of being made to wait by the security officials at the airport and she felt humiliated at this all the time.

[15]   She also puts in her Basis of Claim Form and later spoke in testimony about how she suffered discrimination repeatedly because she is a Palestinian, and that whenever she went for a job application or an interview, jobs for which she was very qualified, as she had worked in Saudi Arabia on a work permit and worked in these jobs, and yet in Egypt as soon as they notice the identifiers in her ID card or in her passport, the first two digits would indicate that she is a Palestinian, she never received the job in all the years that she kept trying to find employment in Egypt.

[16]   She testified that she was often told by some of the employers or prospective employers that the reason she was being denied the job was because of her Palestinian origin.

[17]   She also spoke within her Basis of Claim Form how she was also subjected to car searches and personal searches at checkpoints by police and the questioning that was asked was because of her Palestinian status despite being an Egyptian citizen.

[18]   So, Ms. XXXX, I have found you to be a credible witness. You did provide your answers at this hearing without embellishment. You answered all the questions without discrepancies in your evidence and your responses were consistent with your Basis of Claim Form and the amendments as well as with your other evidence. I did ask you many questions and I find that these have assisted in establishing your credibility in a favourable manner.

[19]   Now, I have considered the documentary material, much of which speaks mostly about stateless Palestinians and your situation is not the same as theirs, but counsel in her submissions made some interesting points, which are especially about how, while you have the protection so to speak of having an Egyptian passport, that’s the official position and in theory, that it is a de facto situation you do not benefit it seems from that Egyptian citizenship, and that you are humiliated and questioned longer than anybody else who has an Egyptian passport and that is because of your ties to Palestinian origins, and this no matter what citizenship you seem to have keeps following you.

[20]   The counsel made reference to the Federal Court decision of Xie about the systematic denial of a right to work. 

[21]   Now, the right to work of your husband is also existent, but I am not looking at his situation am looking at the fact that even though you have the benefit of an Egyptian passport in Egypt, you have still been denied systematically, I would say, the ability or to secure employment to support yourself, and when this happens on a systematic basis, I consider the right to support yourself to be a core human right, and therefore I find that you have faced cumulative discrimination that amounts to persecution.

[22]   There has been, I believe in your case, a pattern of repression and the effects of which are that the institutions such as the authority of the Egyptian government which should be protecting you, it would seem from the evidence that you have been denied and that you are not provided with that protection, partly because it is the government itself that made the decrees and certain laws making it harder or practically for stateless Palestinians they have no rights, but for persons such as yourself, there doesn’t seem to, even though you are not a stateless Palestinian, the distinction and the protection you should have been afforded, I don’t believe has been afforded to you.

[23]   The document referred by counsel, which is in the National Documentation Package found in Item 3.4, it speaks more generally there about Palestinians in Egypt. It speaks about how the policy changes, or what I refer to as a decree, were made by Mubarak, but these have continued and they have not improved. These have restricted work and the ability of families to reunite.

[24]   While that was perhaps more so to address the situation of those that were not granted the benefit of an Egyptian citizenship, in your case, as I have already mentioned, you are perceived to be Palestinian and that you have then experienced similar discriminatory practices that they have had imposed on them in Egypt, and so therefore, if you were being denied your rights as an Egyptian citizen over and over again because of your origins as a Palestinian, then that in my opinion amounts to persecution.

[25]   Given this current situation that is described in the National Documentation Package with how the government since the revolution in 2011 and then again afterwards which brought in the current government, the situation does not appear to have become better with respect to human rights.

[26]   On the contrary, it appears that human rights have deteriorated according to many sources, and the preponderance of documents including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and the United States Department of State, they speak about the rights, the authorities arbitrarily restricting rights to the population, and in your case if you are imputed to be a Palestinian national or a person who is of Palestinian origin, then I don’t believe you would be protected.

[27]   So, I don’t believe that there is State protection that is adequate in your situation given that you are overall perceived to be of the Palestinian origin and often treated as though you were stateless.

[28]   Also with respect to internal flight alternative, the situation for you will be the same throughout the country in my opinion. I don’t believe that you would have an internal flight alternative. So, you cannot go elsewhere in the country apart from out of Cairo and stay safe because you would face the same serious grounds of persecution.

[29]   So, for these reasons, I find that you, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX are a Convention refugee, and I therefore accept your claim.

[30]   With respect to XXXX, however, there has been no evidence submitted regarding the United States of America that would refute the presumption of State protection for your son in that country of which I find that he is a citizen by virtue of his having a United States of America passport.

[31]   Therefore, I find that XXXX XXXX XXXX is not a Convention refugee and I reject his claim for protection. Do you understand that?

[32]   Thank you. This hearing is now ended and the hearing is concluded.

[33]   Thanks Mr. Interpreter for all your assistance. Good day counsel. Good day everyone.

[34]   INTERPRETER: Thank you.

[35]   COUNSEL: Thank you.

[36]   MEMBER: All the best to you ma’am.

———- REASONS CONCLUDED ———-