Canada must immediately issue a Temporary Resident Permit to Mohammad Younesi, a 27-year-old Afghan women's rights advocate and torture survivor currently detained in a US immigration jail.

Even though a US court agreed to release him to come to Canada, Canadian officials refuse to allow him in, despite the fact that the rest of his family were granted asylum on June 4, 2025.

If Canada refuses to act quickly and bring him here from the US, he faces deportation back to torture and possible death in Afghanistan. In December 2023, Mohammad was kidnapped, detained, tortured and subjected to forced labour at the hands of the Taliban.

He is one of many Afghans who’ve been betrayed by a Canadian government that said it had their backs, but when the Taliban returned to power, failed to deliver on promises of safety and support.

An excellent newspaper story on his case by the Toronto Star’s Nicholas Keung is below.

Time is running out.  Canada must act immediately to allow Mohammad to join his family in Toronto.

U.S. authorities agreed to release this Afghan refugee to join family in Canada. Ottawa has refused to let him in
By Nicholas Keung, Toronto Star

Shafiqa Jalali endured a two-month journey including a stretch through the treacherous Darién Gap — and detention by American immigration authorities — before making it to Canada for asylum.

The 57-year-old Afghan mother should have been thrilled when she, her husband and four children were granted refugee status to start a new life here on Wednesday. But there’s little to celebrate.
 
Jalali can’t take her mind off her “baby” — the youngest son, Mohammad Younesi — who has been held in a Houston jail and is facing imminent deportation to Afghanistan, where she says he would be tortured and killed for his work for a local charity to empower women and girls.

An American immigration court has agreed to release the 27-year-old man to Canada, where he’s eligible to seek asylum, with his family ties here. But Ottawa has refused to issue him a temporary resident permit to enter. On Thursday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to delay his removal any further.

“Canada, please help me,” a sobbing Jalali pleaded through a Farsi interpreter. “I don’t have hopes to stay alive long enough to meet Mohammed again.”

Younesi’s family had a comfortable life back in Herat until 2021, when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdrawal. That’s when trouble began for him — and his family.

Younesi, who studied economics in university, had worked on a project funded by the International Organization for Migration, part of the United Nations, and later as a manager with the Razi Social Development Organization for impoverished women and girls.

In an affidavit submitted to the U.S. immigration court, Younesi said he received threats for his work and in December 2023, was kidnapped, detained, tortured and subjected to forced labour at the hands of the Taliban.

He escaped while working in an open field in 2024 and went into hiding, but according to his claim, the Taliban then started threatening his family as they looked for him, prompting him to leave the country in July. They scraped together money to first get him to Dubai via Iran, and then to Brazil on a humanitarian visa available to Afghans.

Guided by human smugglers, he trekked through Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico before he crossed into the U.S. via Arizona in September. He has been held in immigration detention since.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, his parents, three brothers, a sister and sister-in-law also followed the same path. They, too, were initially detained by U.S. authorities, but were released and made it to Canada separately in October and January. (They were exempted from the ban against asylum seekers via the U.S. because of family ties in Canada.)

En route to the U.S. on foot, Jalali, who is diabetic, was dangerously low in blood sugar, and strangers in her group gave her candy in sticky wraps to get through. She said she had to climb over rocks and walk through swampy jungles, and during one stretch of the journey, the boat she was in almost capsized in the turbulent water.

She was determined to reunite with her family ultimately in Canada, but later found out Younesi did not make it.

“I have not been able to sleep,” said Jalali. “I eat very little because of my diabetes, but otherwise, I don’t feel the need to eat.”

She wants people to know Younesi is a kind and generous soul, a very good son, who was a gifted student in school. She said her son would use his own time after work to reach out to women about his programs, help homeless people and buy snacks and toys for abused children.

“When he passed every country (to the U.S.), he would tell his siblings on WhatsApp the stops they could pass through to get Mom fresh fruits along the way,” said Jalali, cracking a smile.

“I don’t know what his life is going to be like in the Taliban’s hands. Even if he survives, he will have no family, no parents and siblings with him.”

Rachel Brewer, who met the family last year through her volunteering work, has helped Younesi secure legal support and assisted the family in navigating their new life, finding shelter and services, and fundraising for lawyers’ fees. She said the family was bittersweet when they were granted asylum in Canada on June 4.

“There was very little to celebrate because a piece of the family is missing,” said the Parkdale resident, who is among a core group of supporters in the community rallying for Younesi. “It’s like there’s a dark cloud over this family that’s really preventing them from rebuilding their lives.”

Erin Simpson, the family’s Toronto lawyer, said Younesi is part of his parents’ and siblings’ permanent residence application, but that would be a lengthy process. Not only is the family separation unnecessary, but the deportation to Afghanistan will certainly put her client’s life at risk.

In refusing Younesi’s temporary resident permit application, Canada’s Immigration Department said the document is intended to allow entry for those failing to meet a requirement “only in exceptional circumstances,” or on occasion, when “compelling Canadian interests” are served.

“Mohammad’s entire family is here and he faces incredible risk in Afghanistan,” said Simpson. “While the eventual pathways of doing the permanent residency application may reunite this family, the truth is that if we don’t step in now, it will be too late.”