Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Abdihakim Mohamed, 25, was scheduled to have a meeting at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi when it was abruptly switched to a location off Canadian territory.
"I was expecting everything to be finished. Now they say something else. I don't understand," said Anab Issa, who works as a cleaner at Carleton University and has been fighting for her son's return to Ottawa for three years.
During the meeting with a consular officer, which lasted about an hour, the Canadian official asked Mohamed where he was from, how long he's been in Kenya and other personal identification questions.
Mohamed was accompanied by his uncle and a representative from Ecoterra International, an organization that helped Suaad Hagi Mohamud, 31, of Toronto return to Canada after she was trapped in Kenya for three months because Canadian officials said she was an imposter. She's now suing the government.
The consular officer who met with Mohamed said he was there only to ask questions and anything involving a passport would be "handled by Ottawa," Issa was told yesterday.
Travel documents
A spokesman from foreign affairs said the government will issue travel documents once it receives an application.
Issa said she filed and paid for an application two years ago and has continually updated the file since. She doesn't have a birth certificate or similar documents needed for a passport.
Issa's ordeal began in 2006, two years after she took her son to Somalia to be with his grandmother.
When Issa returned to Canada she accidentally had Mohamed's passport in her purse and it was confiscated by border guards in Toronto.
When his grandmother got sick in 2006, Issa decided to bring him home.
She applied for a new passport for Mohamed, but was denied.
She even went to Nairobi to seek a passport with her son.
Canadian officials still wouldn't give her one.
"They told me he's not my son. I told him he's my son," she said.
The consular officer also wouldn't issue Mohamed a protection letter, which would save him from being arrested by Kenyan police.
He did, however, provide him with phone numbers in case of an emergency.