Family loses bid to avoid deportation
A German family at the heart of a legal battle with an immigration consultant in Manitoba has been deported.
Canadian officials put Thomas and Jena Rost and their three children on a flight to Frankfurt on Thursday.
"Well obviously they were pretty distressed. Everybody was crying," said Jack Wiebe, Thomas Rost's employer at JKW Construction in Plum Coulee, Man.
"This is complete bullshit what's happened. It's like we're in a communist country."
He called them "just above and beyond" good people.
Wiebe has been trying to fight on the Rosts' behalf, to keep them from being deported. And he intends to continue the legal fight for the family against Star 7 International, the immigration consulting firm based in Winkler, Man.
"I tried to get our local MP to help us, but anytime you talk about immigration they [politicians] just say, 'well, you've been deported. You better see that you get back.' They don't do a damn thing about it," Wiebe said.
The Rosts troubles began as soon as they decided to move to Canada in September 2007.
At the time they didn't speak English well so they searched online for help and turned to Star 7. According to Thomas Rost, who spoke to CBC News in early July 2011, company president Adele Dyck travelled to Germany in March 2008 and met with him.
Dyck found Rost a job and agreed to handle the family's immigration application. He paid her $6,000 for her services.
Rost told Dyck he had a conviction from a traffic accident in Germany and he was concerned it might be problematic with immigration officials. However, he said, Dyck left that detail off the immigration form and assured him he shouldn’t worry about it.
A statement of claim filed in Winnipeg on May 27, 2011, alleges Dyck also advised the Rost family they should not tell immigration officials they were planning on moving to Canada.
Instead, according to the claim, the Rosts were advised to say they were coming to Canada as “visitors” and that they should apply for tourist visas on the plane from Germany.
During questioning on arrival at the airport in Canada in June 2008, Rost said, the family admitted they planned to stay in the country.
That admission almost led to their immediate removal, but after some negotiation an arrangement was reached that allowed the Rosts to stay. The family had to drive to the U.S. border and apply for work visas upon re-entry to Canada.
It was later that immigration officials found out about the conviction and because it wasn't reported, the whole family was ordered to leave.
Dyck turned down an interview request from CBC News, citing the fact the case is now before the courts.
