Her brother and sister survived, but she didn't. Two years ago, the same day that Rezman Basir celebrated her high school graduation, she and her siblings were attacked. “With everything that’s going on back home and everything that we have been through, leaving our home and coming here and not being able to have a home here, has been the worst experience ever,” Nelofar said.Įight months ago, his family arrived in Canada - all but one daughter, a victim of the Taliban. “How is this happening in Canada?”Īnd it’s happening in plain sight, minutes from Pearson International Airport, where they landed so many months ago. “Its like segregation, really,” she said. They have to ask for permission even to bring a piece of bread up to their room, Elshayal said. “So other guests are allowed to use these facilities, are allowed to gather, and they have been told that they’re not.” “They sent a paper with rules just for them,” she said. “It’s a hotel that houses refugees that most people don’t know about,” Mona Elshayal said, adding that even when they talk to officials about refugees, “they don’t seem to mention that hotel.”Įlshaya said that refugee families had been given specific restrictions, such as that they couldn’t use facilities such as the gym, the swimming pool, or even drink the coffee in the lobby. Volunteers and refugees describe five adults being confined to one small room for months, and not being allowed to eat meals within their rooms.Īn advocate told CTV National News that volunteers have a nickname for the hotel: The Ghost Hotel. Refugee families at the hotel Nelofar are confined to live under restrictive rules, dictated by an organization called Polycultural, which is contracted out by the federal government. “The fact we want to work, we want to go to school, have a normal life, we can’t even have that, that’s really depressing for everybody here.” Ever since we have come here, things have been really difficult,” she said. They fled Afghanistan in late August after the Taliban took over, hoping that in Canada, they would be safe and “have better lives,” she said.īut even though they made it to Canada, that dream hasn’t come true yet. “It’s literally like a prison right now here,” Nelofar, who asked CTV not to use her last name, told CTV National News. No school, no government benefits and no clear understanding why they’ve been left in limbo. After a desperate dash for freedom last August, refugee families from Afghanistan who are still being shuffled from hotel to hotel right here in Canada feel like they are caught in some kind of purgatory.įor 10 months, Nelofar, her siblings and parents have lived in a hotel room.
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