P.E.I. man seeks to smuggle daughter out of Burma
Last Updated: Monday, March 17, 2008 | 6:42 AM AT
CBC News
The P.E.I. Newcomers Association is working with a Charlottetown man to help get his daughter out of Burma.
'They have to pay human traffickers to smuggle them out of the country.'— Erica Carragher, P.E.I. Newcomers Association
The man, who asked CBC News not to use his name to protect his seven-year-old daughter from reprisals, arrived as a refugee from Burma, also known as Myanmar, one year ago Monday.
The man is one of 42 refugees from Burma now living on Prince Edward Island, but he's the only one still trying to get family out.
"I hope for my daughter [that] she can come to Canada safely. This is my first hope, my first hope for my daughter," he told CBC News through a translator Friday.
The 33-year-old man said he came to Canada to escape religious persecution, violence and killings by Burma's military government. He said his pregnant wife was beaten to death by soldiers who raided their village. Their daughter is now in hiding, in the care of relatives. When the time is right, they intend to smuggle her into a neighbouring country.
"The country is so unstable that there's no Canadian Embassy there, so that at their own risk they have to pay human traffickers to smuggle them out of the country," said Erica Carragher of the Newcomers Association.
The man's friends in P.E.I., including volunteers at the Newcomers Association, are now raising money to help pay for his daughter's journey to Canada. He has already applied to immigration officials to have his daughter accepted into Canada as a refugee, if and when she escapes Burma.
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