A Nigerian family, the Adegboyes, have been granted temporary permits to remain in Canada after an initial order to vacate the country.
Deborah Akingboye, her husband and their first child arrived Quebec as asylum seekers in 2017 via the now-shuttered Roxham Road crossing, fleeing what she has described as religious persecution by a dangerous Nigerian cult.
Cliche-Rivard, an immigration lawyer, said federal immigration officials have granted the family a temporary residence permit that will allow them to remain in the country while they pursue a bid for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds.
The Adegboye family’s lawyer, Vakkas Bilson, says they have been given permission to stay six more months.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Adegboye and her husband have worked as personal support workers providing health care to vulnerable patients, while adding two more children to their family.
Cliche-Rivard told CBC that the immigration minister’s decision to grant a reprieve was the right one.
Maryse Poisson of the Welcome Collective, which organised protests to press home demands to grant the Adegboyes permanent staus, said she managed to speak with the family on Tuesday afternoon, and she said they’re “very relieved” to be able to stay.
