Carlo Escario risked his life and Canada doesn’t allow him time
By Ysh Cabana
TORONTO (05/12/2021)-If Canada doesn’t give him an extension , Carlo Escario will be gone by tomorrow, May 13, for an immigration mistake he has admitted to. The 36-year old frontline worker has worked as a hemodialysis assistant at Toronto General Hospital since the start of the pandemic.
He is pleading with the government to let him stay until he gets his full shot of COVID-19 vaccine.
“I sincerely hope that Canada will consider my work as a front-line health care worker and find that I am deserving of a short deferral of my removal,” said Escario in the Toronto Star interview.
As a hemodialysis assistant, he was among the essential health care workers to be vaccinated early this year, but he would only receive his second Pfizer dose on June 11. He asked the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to re-schedule his deportation to June 22 to consider an allowance of 10 days should there be any adverse effects from the vaccine.
Originally from Quezon City, Escario arrived in Canada in 2007 as a temporary foreign worker under the live-in caregiver program. Three years later, he became a permanent resident. However, his immigrant status was revoked in 2013 on the grounds of misrepresentation. On his permanent residency application, he made a mistake not to declare his marital status and child in the Philippines fearing further processing delay.
The CBSA ruled deferring his deportation would be inappropriate. The border agency said it’s not convinced he would suffer any “irreparable harm” if he does not receive the second COVID vaccine nor a dose of a different brand of viral vector shot.
“It is currently very difficult to foresee for how long the pandemic will last. In Canada, lockdowns are emerging in various cities and provinces at this time due to increasing numbers of infections,” a border officer said in a report.
“Given a time frame related to the continuing challenges of COVID-19 remain unclear, and in light of my limited jurisdiction to consider deferrals of a definite, short-term nature, I am not satisfied that granting Mr. Carlo Escario a deferral of removal based on COVID-19 concerns is appropriate.”
Escario said he accept full responsibility and he is ready to leave. But some advocates are saying he risked his life to save others, so why is it easy for the government of Canada to dispose an essential worker.
#KeepCarloInCanada and a Change.org petition has been set up to support Escario .
As the number of coronavirus patients in Ontario has increased, Ottawa reached out to Manila recently requesting for additional health care workers on critical care units and on the COVID floor of hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Philippines is experiencing the most number COVID cases per million in Southeast Asia as less than two per cent of the population have been vaccinated. The country is second to Indonesia in COVID-related deaths.