Roma family returns to Canada after Conservatives' deportation order reversed
'Thank you for all you have done for us, thank you a million times'
When Georgia Brouwer, 11, hugged her friend Viktoria (Lulu) Pusuma, 8, goodbye at Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2014, neither of the girls wanted the moment to end.
"We wouldn't let go of each other and it was really sad," Georgia said of their farewell two years ago. But her dad, Andrew Brouwer, also the Pusumas' lawyer, promised his daughter he'd keep fighting for the family until they came home.
On Thursday, the family — deported from Canada in 2014 — did just that, returning to the country that was their sanctuary for nearly three years.
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"This is freedom's smell!" Lulu's mother, Timea, exclaimed, stepping outside the airport for the first time after their return.
Grateful to return
Among those the family thanked for their return were Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, community refugee support organization Romero House and Toronto's west-end Windermere United Church, whose walls gave them sanctuary for so much of their time in Toronto.
In 2009, the Roma activist couple Jozsef Pusuma and Timea Daroczi and their daughter, Lulu, fled from Hungary, a country where they say they were the targets of violence. The family found refuge in local Toronto churches until December 2014, when they received the heartbreaking news that they could no longer stay in Canada.
The family was unable to secure refugee status, despite reports by international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International that documented abuse against Roma at the hands of Hungarian authorities.
At the time, the Canadian government had been working to stem the flow of what it called "bogus" refugee claims, with then immigration minister Jason Kenney dismissing the claims of those from EU countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic — even travelling to Hungary to discourage Roma from travelling to Canada.
'Full to the brim with gratitude'
But in a sudden change of fate for the Pusumas, Immigration and Refugee Minister John McCallum granted special permission to the family to return to Canada in February. McCallum intervened in the Pusumas' case, granting them ministerial approval for their return and clearing the way for them to receive full permanent residency status.
Following the news of the reversal, the minister at Windermere United Church read aloud a letter of thanks written by the family.
"I have no words … my heart is full to the brim with gratitude. Thank you for all you have done for us, thank you a million times," the family wrote.
The Pusumas' case was among thousands of other Roma refugee claims that lawyer Viktor Hohots would eventually admit he failed to adequately represent. In May 2015, Hohots was handed a contentious five-month suspension by the Law Society of Upper Canada for the claims he handled from 2009 to 2013. He failed to show up for hearings, submit documents and mixed up clients' stories.
Hohots was barred from practising refugee law for two years, ordered to undergo a practice review and pay $15,000 in legal fees.
The sentence was met with outrage by several Roma advocates who called it a "sham."
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Jozsef Pusuma said he's excited to build a life in what is now his new home.
"Right now today, I'm free, I know," he said. "I'm so happy."
With files from Maureen Brosnahan