By paNOW Staff

Saskatoon mom waiting for son’s visa terrified in Pakistan

Dec 17, 2014 | 11:02 AM

Waheeda Afridi and her four-year-old son are terrified after the heart-wrenching massacre at a school in Pakistan. 

They were at a hospital just kilometres away from the Taliban attack when it happened. Afridi said there was a flurry of ambulances responding to the devastation where 148 people, mostly children, were killed.

“People were just trying to run and scream,” she said through tears.

“My child, he is just in shock. I don’t know what’s going on with him since yesterday. He’s not eating well.”

Afridi and her husband Ashfaq are Canadian citizens and live in Saskatoon. Four years ago, she adopted Ajjab, who is the seventh child of her sister whose husband died during the pregnancy. As a widow with six other children, she agreed to give Ajjab up for adoption to the Afridi family.

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Ajjab was denied permanent residency, to which his father appealed the decision in 2012. His application was refused because the immigration officer wanted a letter of no objection from the province of Saskatchewan. The province eventually issued a letter. 

After this week’s senseless attack, Afridi doesn’t understand why the Canadian government is not concerned about the safety of her and her son. 

“I have been telling them, we are not safe. We are not safe. Please grant him permanent visa, anything, so we can take him along with us to Canada. This is the child we dreamt for. We sacrificed our jobs, a really good part of our lives. We had good future thoughts for him but now I’m sitting here for the last four years and every day brings so much stress and challenges,” she told John Gormley Live from Pakistan. 

“Just two weeks ago I was thinking about putting him in a school or something because this immigration process, they don’t even reply to me for any emails. It’s taking forever and it’s so complicated.”

The appeal hearing decision in October ruled in Ajjab’s favour and the case has been sent back to the visa post for further processing.

On Dec. 5, Citizen and Immigration Canada forwarded the following response.

“As per the Immigration appeal division’s decision, the application was sent back to an immigration officer for further processing and a new decision. This is a complex case that will require a thorough review and analysis by the officer. We can’t speculate on timelines at this point.”