A man who has been living in a New Brunswick church for more than two years is pleading for the right to stay in Canada permanently.

Amine Maazaoui has found refuge at the Shediac Bay Community Church since 2015. He says he is afraid to return to his native Tunisia after fleeing the country following his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

Maazaoui was 27 when he fled Tunisia with his adoptive family in 2011.

“I remember, like three or four times, I was beaten in the night by individual group,” he told CTV Atlantic, describing how his attackers threatened him with death, if he didn’t become a Muslim again.

Once in Canada, the family applied to become permanent residents, claiming religious persecution. Maazaoui’s parents and sister were approved, but he was denied.

Under a deportation order, he sought sanctuary in the church.

“He knows that it is illegal, but he had no choice. If he goes back to his country again, he will be subject to persecution and discrimination again,” said Akram Ben Salah, executive director of the New Brunswick Refugee Clinic.

Despite his being confined to the church, Maazaoui, who speaks three languages, has a job and volunteers with the community.

“He’s basically a very hopeful young man,” Marie-Claire Muirhead, who provides assistance and support for refugees in New Brunswick, told CTV Atlantic. “I think that has sustained him tremendously but his life is still on hold.”

Maazaoui can’t even leave for medical appointments. “When he had a tooth problem we cannot even take him to the hospital so we gave him medicines to soothe his pain,” said Ben Salah.

Maazaoui said the struggle will be worth it, if he is granted refugee status.

As he and his lawyer await word, next week Maazaoui’s supporters plan to march from the church to local MP Dominic LeBlanc’s constituency office in downtown Shediac, to call on the federal government to intervene and grant permanent residence to Maazaoui on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.



Press Release: Mr. Mohamed Amine Maazaoui is a 33-year old Tunisian man whom Moncton welcomed in August 2011. Arriving... Posted by New Brunswick Refugee Clinic on Monday, May 29, 2017

With a report by CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis