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A Colombian refugee claimant living in Vancouver says he only pretended to be a member of a banned guerrilla group so he could get a job and stipend being offered to the former fighters in his homeland.

Luis Felipe Garces Caceres wanted the Federal Court of Canada to reverse an Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) ruling that he was inadmissible to this country because he claimed to be in a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.

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But Justice Roger Lafrenière rejected Caceres’ application for a judicial review of the earlier decision barring him from Canada.

Lafrenière said in a decision released Monday that the immigration appeal division member who deemed Caceres inadmissible considered all the evidence filed on his behalf and made a reasonable conclusion based on it.

The board member “could reasonably find on the evidence before it that the applicant was not under any duress when he registered his name as a FARC member and that he willingly participated in the FARC demobilization,” Lafrenière said.