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Redwan and Shuruvi, now 19 and 18 years old respectively, came to Canada in 2013 from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Once in the country, their father abandoned the family, and their mother, Sabina Sharin Nipa, applied for refugee status on their behalf. The Immigration and Refugee Board, however, denied that application and an appeal in 2014, in part because Nipa, had, by her own admission, lied to the board and presented it with false documents. The board also found the Mozumders weren’t refugees because, as U.S. citizens, they could simply go to the U.S. if they weren’t safe in Bangladesh.

For years after that ruling, though, nothing happened. The Mozumders adapted to Canada. They began to think of themselves as Canadian. Until the last year, they had little idea they were any different from anyone else in their new polyglot hometown. “I honestly didn’t know what being a refugee was, what being an immigrant was, what being a citizen was,” said Shuruvi. “I was just like, ‘what does that mean?’ I had no idea.”

Photo by Family handout

Last year, Shuruvi graduated from East York Collegiate Institute and was accepted into the University of Toronto to study life sciences. She had hoped to start this fall, but on the advice of her family’s lawyer, she deferred for a year. Redwan, who is a few credits short of his high school diploma, already worked for the City of Toronto, doing after-school care for local kids. Shuruvi got a job doing the same.

In 2018, Nipa applied for permanent residence in Canada under what’s known as humanitarian and compassionate grounds. H&C applications are a regular last resort for those rejected by the refugee system. As part of that process, Redwan and Shuruvi were told to ask friends and teachers for letters of support. That’s how Redwan found out he might someday be forced to leave the country. A teacher told him another student, a failed refugee applicant, had asked her for the same thing. When that student turned 18, she said, he was deported. “I was just like, is that what’s happening with me too?” Redwan said.