Thread: Planeload of deportees flown to Portugal

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Updated Sun. Mar. 26 2006 11:38 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

There were tears at Pearson International Airport in Toronto as people said good-bye to friends and loved-ones being deported from Canada on Sunday.

After more than seven years in Canada, Maria Alves and her son have been told they must return to Portugal. It is a trip they don't want to make because they say their roots are in Canada.

"She has no words to explain," Alves son Rafael Belchior translated.

Through tears ,his aunt Laurinda Carrasqueira expressed her feelings of desperation.

"She said she can't do nothing to help us out," Belchior translated and then tried to comfort her by saying "don't cry" as they embraced.

Alves and Belchior are among a large group of illegal immigrants deported on Sunday afternoon.

Many were given only a few days notice to make preparations, pack their bags, and get rid of possessions they can't take on the flight to Lisbon.

"It's not fair," family friend Carla Dos Reis said, her voice trembling. "(They) didn't give her enough time to sell anything. She had to put everything in my house."

A large number of the group being deported came to Canada over the last several years to meet the demands of a booming construction industry, particularly in Toronto.

Industry estimates say approximately 75 per cent of the workers are in this country illegally.

"If you have bought a new home or a new condo, you know that the waiting times getting a place just keep on getting longer and longer," Pedro Barata of the Portuguese National Congress said Sunday.

"I think that the more we deport people who are needed in the construction industry, the longer those waits are going to be."

Some estimates hold that 15,000 people are working illegally in southern Ontario's construction and hospitality industries, and the Canada-wide figure is 300,000.

Immigration Canada said there will not be an amnesty. The federal agency said they have a legal duty to remove people who have come to this country without following the proper procedures.

Many in the group deported Sunday say they will try to return to Canada and resume the lives they have built.

"Shame on the Canadian government for deporting people who are working hard. We need those people here," Barata said.

"We have an obligation to the hundreds of thousands of people who play by the rules," Immigration and Citizenship Minister Monte Solberg said Sunday on CTV's Question Period.

shame on you Canada for enforcing your laws and ejecting the freeloaders suckling down your free healthcare.. shame shame shame. Finally I like Canada