Border tragedy: Romani family facing deportation from Canada dies trying to cross into the USA

The children were Canadian citizens and were born to their parents, Florin and Monalisa Iordache (both age 28) who had been informed they were to be deported to Romania. According to CTV News, their lawyer, Peter Ivanyi, said the family was to have been deported to Romania on 29 March but never showed up for the flight.

The Iordaches had filed a request for their deportation to be delayed so one of their children could be examined by a neurologist, but authorities rejected that request. The children, Evelyn and Eylen, were not included in the deportation order because they were both born in Canada and are Canadian citizens.

Ivanyi said the family had done their best to find an alternative solution, but after their request for a stay of deportation was rejected, they apparently realized they were out of options. They decided to flee to the United States by crossing the river and tragically died during the risky journey.

The couple had been doing their best to acquire residency in Canada since 2018 and had filed an appeal in federal court against their most recent rejection. “The immigration authorities rejected their request and said the parents had to fly out of Canada on 29 March,” their lawyer said, adding that the family did not want to return to Romania because Romani people are discriminated against there.

In addition to the Romani family, a four-member family from India also died during that same attempt to flee into the USA. Both families died less than a week after Canada and the USA amended the Safe Third Countries Agreement (STCA), which prevents people in either Canada or the USA from crossing the border between the two countries to seek asylum.

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), in response to the migrants’ deaths, held a protest outside the office of the Minister for Public Safety, Marco Mendicino, in North York. During the assembly, the organizers handed over their petition calling for an end to the STCA, which entered into force in December 2004 to better manage the flow of asylum seekers at the shared land border between Canada and the USA and was recently amended after a significant influx of asylum seekers.

“We’ve been saying for years this agreement kills people,” Syed Hussan, MWAC’s executive director, said during the rally. “Today we delivered the voices of 7,000 people. We put up the photos of people who died so the government can see the impact of their decisions.”

The rally was addressed by David Copzaru, who is also a Roma refugee from Romania. “I was shocked [by the deaths] and my heart was screaming, because we came here to be protected,” he told the crowd.

“We are not treated as humans in Romania and across Europe because [of] our colour and because [of] our language. And because we are Roma, we are ‘Gypsy’, we are not accepted as a human beings,” the refugee said.