After a desperate quest for freedom last August, Afghan refugee families still moving from hotel to hotel right here in Canada feel trapped in a purgatory.
Nelofar, her siblings and parents have been living in a hotel room for 10 months. No school, no state aid and no clear understanding of why they are left in the dark.
“It’s literally like a prison here right now,” Nelofar told CTV National News, asking CTV not to use her last name.
They fled Afghanistan in late August after the Taliban took power, hoping they would be safe in Canada and “have a better life,” she said.
But even though they have reached Canada, this dream has not yet come true.
“It was very difficult, unfortunately. “Since we came here, things have been really difficult,” she said.
“The fact that we want to work, we want to go to school, to have a normal life, we can’t even have that, it’s really depressing for everyone here.”
Refugee families at the Nelofar Hotel are restricted from living under restrictive rules dictated by an organization called Polycultural, which was formed by the federal government.
Volunteers and refugees described five adults locked in a small room for months and not allowed to eat in their rooms.
A lawyer told CTV National News that the volunteers have a nickname for the hotel: The Ghost Hotel.
“This is a hotel that accommodates refugees that most people don’t know about,” Mona Elshayal said, adding that even when talking to refugee officials, “they don’t seem to mention this hotel.”
Elshaya said refugee families have been given specific restrictions, such as not being able to use facilities such as the gym, swimming pool or even drinking coffee in the lobby.
“They sent a rulebook just for them,” she said. “So other guests are allowed to use these facilities, they are allowed to gather and they are told they are not.”
They need to ask permission to even bring a piece of bread to their room, Elshayal said.
“It’s really like segregation,” she said. “How does this happen in Canada?”
And it’s happening in a prominent place, minutes from Pearson International Airport, where they landed so many months ago.
“Everything that happens at home and everything we went through when we left home […] and coming here and not being able to have a home here was the worst experience, ”Nelofar said.
Abdul Basir Talash is on his mind.
Eight months ago, his family arrived in Canada, all but one daughter of a Taliban victim. Two years ago, on the same day that Rezman Basir celebrated her graduation from high school, she and her siblings were attacked.
Her brother and sister survived, but she did not.
In Kabul, Talash works as the director of a medical laboratory and applied to come to Canada long before the Taliban took power.
This is not the life they thought they would come: stuck in the same hotel since October, waiting every day for information about their documents from the Canadian government.
“As a person, I have a right to know why my case is not moving and why my children are not going to school?” He asked.
CTV National News requested an interview with Immigration Minister Sean Fraser several times, but was rejected.
In an email, CTV National News asked Fraser why it took so long to approve the documents of these families. They sent a 540-word statement that did not answer the question.
“I am optimistic,” Nelofar said. “I can no longer be positive, I don’t see any light.”
Her family wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the winter, but they say they have not yet received a response.
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