Entire family deported to Portugal

TORONTO - Three generations of the Sebastiao family who came to Canada for a better life won’t be having a merry Christmas this year.

A one-way flight to Portugal has been booked for 10 members of the Toronto family. The extended group includes grandparents Paul Sr., 46, and Maria, 44, Sebastiao; their children Marilia, 27, Vanessa, 23, Paul Jr., 19, Beatriz, 13, and their four Canadian-born grandchildren under the age of five.

They have exhausted all their immigration appeals are being deported on Dec. 29 to Lisbon, their counsel said.

Toronto immigration lawyers and workers said they’ve never heard of so many members of one family being deported at one time. Some called it a “mass removal.”

The Sebastiaos’ arrived in Canada in 2001 and filed refugee claims, which were turned down. They tried to remain on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and that was also tossed out in July 2011.

“We are totally stressed out and devastated,” Marilia said on Friday. “We don’t have a house or anything to go back to in Portugal.”

Marilia said her parents are saddened to leave their friends and return home.

“They (my parents) worked hard for everything they now have in this country,” she said. “Now we all have to go home and start over from scratch.”

Marilia, who has a hotdog stand, is being sponsored to stay in Canada by her husband, Erdogan, but the application is being processed. Erdogan is a housing contractor and the family own two homes.

“My father is trying to sell his car and all the furniture,” she said. “Canada is our home and all our family and friends are in this country.”

The Sebastiaos’ legal counsel, Tony Dutra, said the family is being split for Christmas.

“This is sad and tragic situation that is taking place at this time of the year,” Dutra said. “The government is splitting up this family and four Canadian kids are being taken out of the country.”

He said family members have purchased their own airline tickets for the trip home and can return if sponsored by their spouses.

“These people have been here for more than 10 years and have never been on welfare,” Dutra said. “The grandchildren were raised and educated in Canada.”

Officer Amy Wong, of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), in a letter, said the Sebastiaos’ claimed refugee status in 2007, six years after arriving in Canada, only after police discovered they were here illegally.

“It is important to note that the children are Canadian citizens and are not under removal orders,” Wong said. “They may return to Canada at any time.”

Wong said the family were well-established in Portugal with all the kids completing their education. She said Paul Sr. worked in construction there for 20-years and the family were “economic migrants.”