wfn.org | LCMS - 'Nancy' faces uncertain future as Canada decides to

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services

LCMSNews -- No. 26
April 1, 2003

'Nancy' faces uncertain future as Canada decides to deport her

By Bruce Kueck

An Iranian woman seeking to become a refugee in Canada, who says she fears 
that, as a Christian convert she will be jailed, tortured or killed if 
forced to return to her homeland, is about to be returned to Iran.

Canada has decided to deport the woman by April 24 -- a move that will send 
"Nancy" back to the land and people she fled two and a half years before.

"Nancy" is a pseudonym used by LCMSNews and other media to help protect the 
woman's identity.

Nancy, a communicant member of Ascension Lutheran Church, a Missouri Synod 
congregation in Montreal, says she was a fledgling convert to Christianity 
when she emigrated to Canada.  When she did so, she claimed her life was in 
danger because she was a convert to Christianity in Iran where, according 
to her pastor, Rev. Harold Ristau, it is legal to be a Christian but 
illegal to convert to Christianity.

Last year, in an immigration-authority hearing, a judge delivered a ruling 
that, in effect, said Nancy couldn't possibly be in any danger in Iran 
because she was, in fact, not a Christian.

Ristau, who testified at the hearing that Nancy is indeed a baptized 
follower of Christ, said he was astounded by the ruling.

Later, in a letter of protest regarding the judge's ruling, Ristau said 
he  personally has instructed Nancy in Lutheran Christian beliefs and said 
that she has become one of his congregation's most active communicant
members.

But, the protest was to no avail, with Canadian officials saying that they 
lack the authority to question the judge's ruling.

At that point, Nancy's only hope for avoiding deportation lay in Canada's 
Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) program, which is meant to determine 
whether a person's life is in danger if he or she is deported.

But, said Ristau in a March 21 e-mail to "Reporter," the LCMS newspaper, 
that hope ended the day before when Nancy was informed that an analyst 
assigned to her case had rejected both her PRRA appeal and a simultaneous 
claim for humanitarian compassion.

According to Ristau, the government's decision states, in part, that, 
"there exists only the slight possibility that the refugee claimant would 
be a victim of persecution and that there are no serious reasons to believe 
that her life would be in danger or that she would be a victim of torture 
or of cruel and unusual punishment and/or treatment."

Yet, a March 24 United Press International article about Nancy's case 
quotes Patti Lyman, identified as an American attorney who handles asylum 
cases for Just Law International, a Virginia-based firm, as saying that a 
convert to Christianity "is more likely than not to be persecuted in Iran" 
and "... will more likely than not be subjected to torture."

The same article quotes Paul Marshall, identified as a senior fellow at the 
Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., and a leading expert on 
religious persecution, as saying that "Iran has the death penalty for 
apostasy. ... Whether it will carry it out or not, we don't know."

For now, Nancy remains free, awaiting an unknown future.  She can't stay in 
Canada, yet she believes she can't safely return to Iran.  Realistically, 
she probably can't go to another Muslim-dominated nation; and, yet, she has 
been told by immigration experts that, if she tries to go to a non Muslim 
nation in, say, Europe, she will probably just be returned to 
Canada.  Because Iran has been labeled a terrorist nation, and especially 
now that war has broken out between the United States and Iraq, which 
borders Iran, Nancy is believed to have virtually no chance of entering 
America.

So, what choice does she have?

As Ristau wrote in his e-mail to "Reporter," "If anyone has ideas, please 
e-mail.  Certainly pray for this beloved sister in Christ."

Rev. Harold Ristau's e-mail address is ristau3@yahoo.com.

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LCMSNews is published by the News and Information Division, Board for 
Communication Services, of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod.  If you 
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