An Israeli family of Christian Arabs denied asylum in Canada was deported Tuesday to Israel, where they fear Moslem extremists will execute them.
Fihmi Matta, 41, formerly a driver with the Egged bus company, arrived in Canada in October 1990 and filed for refugee status. He claimed his life was in danger because he refused to carry out terrorist orders from the Islamic fundamentalist group Hezbollah to blow up a bus depot.
Matta was staying with friends in Edmonton, Alberta, but in July flew back to Israel, where he said his wife, Nawal, was receiving nightly telephone threats and his 18-year-old daughter, Lina, was assaulted.
After raising enough money for his family’s airfare, the unemployed bus driver returned to Canada on Nov. 13 together with his wife and sons, Sam, 16, and Alla, 9. They were given temporary visitor’s visas on their Israeli passports.
Later that month, adjudicators for Canada’s Immigration Department rejected Matta’s refugee bid. Also that month, a separate two-man refugee panel turned down his family’s application.
Just before those proceedings got under way, a distraught Matta collapsed and was rushed to hospital with chest pains. He was banned from the hearing when it took place.
The immigration authorities found Matta’s claims of persecution implausible, demanding to know how, if he was in mortal danger in his homeland, he could safely spend five months there last year. They also questioned why he had not reported the threats against him to Israeli police. Matta claims members of the Muslim Brotherhood beat him twice.
David Kilgour, the member of Parliament for Edmonton-Southeast, where Matta was living, unsuccessfully intervened on Matta’s behalf with Immigration Minister Bernard Valcourt.
The Federal Court of Canada refused to grant leave to appeal the case, and a last-minute appeal for a reprieve on humanitarian grounds also failed.
Matta’s family was deported with him except for his daughter, who was ordered to be expelled in February after her visitor’s visa expires.
CBC Radio reported an emotional scene at the Edmonton airport, as Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers placed the Israelis on an Air Canada flight to Toronto, where they were forced to board an El Al jetliner to Tel Aviv.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
