Ghanaian overjoyed to find permanent home in Canada

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Ont. (AA) – A Ghanaian professional soccer player who lost his fingers to frostbite crossing into Canada from the U.S. in -30 C (-22 F) weather Christmas Eve has received his belated present – he gets to remain in Canada, Canadian media reported Thursday.

The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board told Seidu Mohammed, 24, late Wednesday his claim as an asylum seeker was approved and Canada is his new home.

“I’m so happy, I don’t know what to say,” Mohammed told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). “Now I’m home, I’m finally home now.”

The board granted the refugee status because it was felt that as a bisexual, Mohammed would encounter persecution in his homeland on the east coast of Africa.

Homosexuality is a criminal offense in Ghana and he told the CBC that his father, a strict Muslim, had disowned him.

Mohammed fled Ghana in 2015 and travelled a circuitous route to the United States, flying first to Ecuador where no visas are necessary, then by bus through Central America and finally into the U.S., where he spent five months in a detention center, CTV News reported.

But he was not granted asylum in the U.S. because, being locked up, he could not provide sufficient proof he would be in danger in his homeland.

“You can’t get enough evidence to show them (U.S. officials) … what you are facing,” Mohammed said.

When he was released pending deportation, Mohammed fled to North Dakota, then took a taxi to the Canadian border at Emerson, Manitoba, a well-used crossing spot for asylum seekers.

He and another man who was also fleeing the U.S. walked for seven hours in temperatures as low as -30 C with the wind, and were found by a trucker, lost and nearly frozen on Dec. 24.

They spent weeks in the hospital and Mohammed lost his fingers and thumbs. His fellow asylum seeker is still awaiting a decision by the board to see if he can remain in Canada.

Despite what he went through and the suffering it entailed, Mohammed said he would do it again.

“It’s worth it for me to be here because this is a good country,” he told the CBC.