Bangladesh man with little time to live struggles to raise son and get medical care
Just days after being discharged from St. Clair Mercy Hospital in St. John’s, Asif Mahmood Prince learned he was going to be a father.
This was August 2022. The Memorial University student, who was originally from Bangladesh, was diagnosed with metastatic thyroid cancer, and the prognosis was bleak.
“I was scared for my life. I was scared for being a father, and then I’m scared for the baby. What am I going to do? Am I going to be in his life or not,” Prince said.
His doctors now consider his treatment palliative, and have told Prince that he will likely live only two to three more years.
Prince’s child is now two years old and he lives with his ex-girlfriend. The parents share custody, with Prince taking the child for scheduled parenting a few days a week.
Prince is too sick to stay in school now Visitor status in Canada, which means he or she cannot work, apply for social assistance or access Newfoundland and Labrador’s Medical Care Plan (MCP).
He has applied for permanent residence, but Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says he may have to wait up to a decade for approval.
While he waits for his application to be processed, Prince said he has no way to earn money to support himself or his child.
“How can you expect someone to live…with dignity when there are dependents you have to take care of,” he said.
Asif Prince has incurable cancer. Returning to Bangladesh is very risky, but permanent residence approval will take longer than staying there. In the meantime he cannot get medical care, and he cannot earn money to support his child. CBC’s Abby Cole reports on Prince’s fight to remain in Canada and what’s at stake.
St. John’s-based immigration lawyer Meghan Felt is helping the Prince get his permanent residence, and says his only option now is to apply on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
“It’s essentially a catch-all immigration application,” Felt said. “(Where) there are unique and compelling humanitarian circumstances that, perhaps, warrant granting permanent residence to this individual.”
In a statement to CBC News, IRCC said the processing time for humanitarian and compassionate applications is approximately 10 years.
However, wait times for some permanent residence programs have recently increased Skyrocketed for 50 years.
Anyhow, with the Prince’s forecastHe probably won’t surviveThis is enough to see that his application is accepted.
In a letter shared by Prince with CBC News, Dr. Joy McCarthy writes that his cancer is incurable, and says returning to Bangladesh is also not an option because “it would not be safe for him to travel given his high blood clot risk.”
Prince said the only thing that keeps him going is his son.
“My goal is to work, save some, spend some time with her and somehow secure a future for her to the best of my ability,” he said.
Waiting for approval
Felt is confident that the Prince’s application will be successful because he has shared custody of a young child, and because he needs medical treatment.
But given the long wait times for applications, Felt said the only other option they can hope for is an in-principle clearance — a letter from IRCC saying that your application meets permanent residence requirements, but must still pass other background checks.
The prince has sent letters to St. John’s East MP Joan Thompson and federal Immigration Minister Lena Metz Diab asking them to help speed up the process.
In emails shared with CBC News by Prince, Thompson’s office made several urgent processing requests to IRCC – which IRCC consistently rejected.
In an emailed statement, IRCC confirmed that Prince’s application is still in the regular queue, and the current processing time is approximately 10 years.
IRCC processes applications according to Canada’s admission targetsTS – the target that, in the case of temporary residents, is Ottawa It will decrease by 43 percent in the next few years,
IRCC also wrote that processing time “is influenced by many factors, including immigration goals, the complexity of individual cases, security checks, and how quickly applicants respond to requests for information.”
IRCC does not systematically track wait times In-principle approval.
allison king, A spokesperson for Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Employment, Growth and Rural Development told CBC News in an email that it is the responsibility of the federal government to provide permanent residence.ornamentation, but the province has also made associations with the Prince.
“(We are) aware of his health struggles, his responsibilities as a parent, as well as his desire to obtain permanent residence. We encourage Mr. Prince to have staff available to assist him.Me,” King wrote.
‘Clear case’
Felt said it is important that Canada approve the Prince’s humanitarian and compassionate grounds application because he has legal custody of a Canadian child.
There is a legal principle in Canada that all decisions must take into account the best interests of the child, Felt said. They argue that the Prince should be granted a work permit because it is in the best interests of the child for his father to remain in Canada.
“In my opinion this is a clear case,” Felt said. “But the problem right now is processing time.”
Felt said a 10-year wait “seems quite unreasonable.”
“We really want Asif’s humanitarian application to be expedited so that we can get approval in principle, so that we can apply for an open work permit for him, allow him to get his MCP card and be able to support himself and his son,” he said.
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