Guinean refugees in Montreal are speaking up -- who is listening?

In Montreal, there are currently numerous Guinean asylum seekers facing deportation from Canada. Some of them, along with other community activists, have come together to protest the Canadian government's moves to deport refugees to West Africa. In the last year, stories of numerous cases of Guinean refugees have been shared widely on social media in Montreal and also discussed in the mainstream media.

A grassroots campaign against the deportation of Guinean refugees was launched a couple years ago with a press conference, supported by the Immigrant Workers Centre, in Côte-Des-Neiges. Since that time, a series of protests and actions have been taking place across the city. Asylum seekers directly impacted by deportations, the wider Guinean, as well as broader West African community networks have been working steadily to convince the federal government to halt the deportations.

Stefan Christoff, Montreal musician, community activist and radio host, produced this report for rabble radio. To highlight this community campaign against deportations he spoke with Mostafa Henaway from the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal and also Guinean asylum seeker Mohamed Barry who has been campaigning against the forced deportations.

Editor's note, November 22, 2019: An earlier version of this story was incorrectly posted with an image of the Guinea-Bissau flag. The accompanying image has been changed to the flag of Guinea.

Image: jorono/Pixabay