Libyan refugees allowed to return to Canada… for $6,000

A Canadian family who lost their bid for refugee status and deported to Libya, have been allowed to return to Mississauga - but on condition that they repay the $6,000 spent by the Canadian government to deport them.

In 2008, the Benhmuda family of six lost a bid for refugee status and deported to Libya. Upon arrival at the airport, Adel Benhmuda, the father in the family, was imprisoned and tortured. They eventually fled to Malta where they applied for asylum.

At least 10,000 Canadians signed an online petition to have two Canadian-born Libyan boys - sons of a Libyan couple who had their visa applications to return to Toronto turned down four years ago - to be allowed back into Canada.

In January this year - after a Federal Court slammed Canadian immigration officials for treating the case unfairly - Ottawa agreed to let them back into Canada on humanitarian grounds.

On Wednesday, however, Canadian officials apparently set a condition for their return - the Benhmudas must pay $6,000 for the price it cost the government to deport them to Libya in 2008.

"This is so utterly disgusting," the family's lawyer, Andrew Brouwer, Brouwer told the Toronto Star. "It's like executing someone and then going to the family and demanding that they pay for the bullet."

Benhmuda, his wife and their two sons fled to Canada from Libya in 2000. Libyan police had been harassing and beating Benhmuda, trying to learn the whereabouts of his brother, part of a group fighting Muammar Gaddafi's dictatorship.

Canadian visa officials said the applicant, his spouse and two non-Canadian children were removed from Canada at the cost of the Canadian government in August 2008. "As such, the removal fees of $1500 per person must be repaid. Therefore, the total removal fees for the applicant, his spouse and his two non-Canadian children would be $6000."

It adds that the Benhmudas must pay a further $800 - $400 per adult - for an "authorization to return to Canada." The Benhmudas can apply for a federal loan to pay for the transportation cost of their return, the email says, but it can only be made available after the $6,800 is paid.

The Benhmudas were deported to Libya when it was still in Gaddafi's grip. Benhmuda, 44, was imprisoned on two separate occasions, for a total of six months. He says prison guards repeatedly bound his bare feet, strung him up in the air and beat his soles with batons and electrical wires.

After Adel's release, the family paid a bribe and fled to Malta, where they lived in a refugee camp for almost two years. There they were recognised by the UN High Commission for Refugees as legitimate refugees.