This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
WARNING: This article contains details of intimate partner violence and sexual abuse and may affect those who have experienced it or know someone affected by it.
This is a tale of two women seeking asylum in Canada.
Both are mothers who fled their homeland with their children due to gender-based violence. Both crossed the border into Canada from the U.S. irregularly. Both have ample documentation to back up their claims. Both asked for this country’s protection.
One was welcomed and is building a new life in Canada with her children. The other has been ordered out of the country three times and has been living, with her children, under the threat of deportation for years. It remains uncertain whether she and her family will be allowed to stay.
Different countries, different odds
Gender-based violence is one of the top reasons refugees seek asylum in Canada.
A CBC analysis of data on decisions by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada’s Refugee Protection Division, obtained through an Access to Information request, reveals it was a factor in nearly 40,000 cases decided between Jan. 1, 2018, and March 31, 2024.
CBC’s analysis also revealed big differences in the outcomes of domestic violence claims from different countries.
According to that IRB data, asylum seekers fleeing domestic violence were most likely to come from Nigeria, but Nigerians were among the least likely to have their claims accepted. Just over half (58 per cent) of Nigerian claims that included domestic violence were accepted, compared with 98 per cent from Iran and 94 per cent from Turkey.
That’s if those fleeing domestic violence are allowed to make a refugee claim in Canada at all.
‘He was going to deal with me’
Emily Owie is one of the people who did not even get that chance.
Owie, 46, was married to a successful businessman in Benin City, Nigeria. The couple had four children and she ran his vehicle parts business and pub when he was travelling out of the country.
Four years later, when Owie was 12 weeks pregnant, she was abducted again. This time, she was getting out of her car at a supermarket when she says armed men forced her into their Range Rover. They blindfolded her and took her to the woods beside a river, where she says she was beaten and sexually assaulted.
While she was being held, Owie overheard the men mention the name of her former partner, a police officer, on a phone call discussing her ransom. It was then, Owie says, that she realized why she was being targeted.
“He wanted to marry me, and I refused him,” she said, noting that he was upset and told her “he was going to deal with me, deal with my family, my kids.”
Owie was released after two days, again after her husband paid a ransom. She went to a medical clinic, where it was confirmed she had suffered a miscarriage and been sexually assaulted. She has a letter from the clinic confirming she sought treatment for sexual assault.
In 2019, Owie and her children came home to find armed men prowling around her house. Owie says she and her kids escaped without being seen, but the would-be kidnappers attacked her security guard and shot the family dog.
“This is the third time,” she said. “I just ran with my kids. I didn’t go home anymore.”
Owie went into hiding and separated from her husband. She realized she and her children would have to leave the country.
Owie didn’t have the option to come to Canada as a government or privately sponsored refugee. They are selected by agencies such as the UN or community groups and often come from conflict zones or refugee camps. She applied for a Canadian visa, but couldn’t get one. So she got a visa and a ticket to the U.S.
But when Owie and her children tried to cross into Canada at the Fort Erie, Ont., port of entry, they were turned back due to the Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires asylum seekers to make a refugee claim in the U.S., if that’s where they first arrive.
Owie says she had no intention of doing this, because she viewed the U.S. as hostile to asylum seekers.
Nigerian mother Emily Owie, who is seeking asylum in Canada, fears what will happen to her children if their family is deported.
Higher bar for gender-based violence claims in the U.S.
Experts say the American system is particularly hostile to women like Owie fleeing gender-based violence, and that such claims are far less likely to succeed in the U.S.
According to Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco, who has written extensively on the US asylum system, U.S. law requires asylum seekers to prove what motivated their persecutors, something she suggests is difficult to do when it comes to gender.
Canada has what she calls a more “humanitarian minded interpretation” that instead asks, if it weren’t for the person’s gender, would this have happened to them?
She recalls one case involving a kidnapped Mexican high school student who was repeatedly raped, slapped and pulled around by her hair. The U.S. immigration judge found no issue with her credibility, but denied her asylum claim on the basis that because her assailant had not spoken a word to her, she couldn’t prove gender had been the motive.
This, she says, “is the type of decision that we often see.”
The impact of the Safe Third Country Agreement on women fleeing gender-based violence is the subject of a court challenge in Canada.
Not allowed to make refugee claim
Owie and her children were told they couldn’t make a refugee claim in Canada because they’d already been found inadmissible due to the Safe Third Country Agreement. They were instead invited to complete a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, which involved an IRCC officer reviewing evidence to determine whether they faced a serious risk if deported.
Owie’s lawyer, Vakkas Bilsin, says it’s an argument he’s seen used at the IRB as well to deny protection to many clients from countries like Nigeria, which have historically lower rates of refugee acceptance.
But Bilsin, whose firm has handled hundreds of refugee claims, says even if a claimant from a country like Iran or Turkey is facing gender-based violence and the person responsible is a family member, they’re still more likely to be successful than a claimant from Nigeria. They generally don’t have to prove they couldn’t be safe somewhere else in their country, he says.
Journey to Canada ‘an adventure game’
Deniz, 39, came to Canada from Turkey in November 2021 with her two children, both under 10. CBC News is not using her real name because she fears stigmatization if the details of her story become widely known.
From her earliest years, Deniz says she suffered because of her gender. Her parents and older brother expected her to be a boy. Her brother threw her in boiling water at the age of two, leaving scars all over her body, she told a Turkish-speaking CBC journalist in an interview.
Years later, when she stood up to her brother during an argument, he held her down and poured acid over her body, which caused severe burns. The injuries required more than 20 surgeries and several skin grafts.
Going to the authorities was not an option, she says.
“If I went to the police, my family would do even worse things,” she said. “And the police wouldn’t do anything. You look at what happens in our country. Unless you’re dead, nothing is really done.”
Deniz got married to escape the violence at home and had two children. She later realized she had not made a healthy choice and asked her husband for a divorce.
“He didn’t want to separate. I am very devoted to my children, so he started using my children against me. Later, he began harming the children to convince me.”
Deniz realized she had to leave the country. She had a friend who had come to Canada as a refugee, who put her in touch with a network of Turkish smugglers.
The three of them got on a plane bound for Mexico. From there, they were smuggled into the U.S., and then to Canada. Deniz told her children it was an “adventure game,” with each country representing a new level.
It was night when they crossed into Canada.
“We walked through the bushes for quite a while,” she said. “I was still playing the adventure game with the kids, telling them we were on the final stage. I told them, ‘You’re a prince; you’re a princess.’ “
They saw what looked like a construction site and headed toward it. The police were there, Deniz says, and they turned themselves in. She told the police she needed protection and they filled out the necessary forms.
A year later, she had a hearing before a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board.
“She asked everything in detail,” Deniz said. “I answered everything. Then she told me, ‘As a woman, I believe you will add value to Canada. You have been accepted. Welcome to Canada.'”
Nigerian woman’s removal halted 3 times by courts
Owie’s application for protection in Canada has been rejected three times. Each time, she has challenged it at Federal Court, and each time, the court has found IRCC officers made mistakes in their assessments and stayed the removal. In November 2024 the court ordered the case reassessed. A fourth IRCC officer is now reviewing it.
IRCC said in an emailed statement that the government “remains firmly committed to upholding a fair and compassionate refugee protection system.” It said applications are considered on a case-by-case basis and that trained officers use the same rules for all applicants.
In response to a question asking if the Safe Third Country Agreement puts female refugee claimants at risk, the statement said it remains “an important tool for Canada and the U.S. to work together on the orderly management of refugee claims made in our countries.” The department went on to say that due to privacy concerns it cannot comment on individual cases.
Despite the ongoing court-ordered reassessments, Owie says they are regularly summoned to Mississauga for interviews with the Canada Border Services Agency. She says this is stressful because they have previously told her she may have to leave the country right away.
Throughout their ordeal, Owie says her children have excelled at school. She proudly told CBC how her son Kelly graduated as an Ontario scholar, trained as a personal support worker and hopes to go on to study nursing. Her daughter, Whitney, who wants to be a doctor, is volunteering in the community. Her younger daughter, Ivanna, was valedictorian at her middle school graduation. She says her youngest son, Nelson, “is already a scholar,” at age nine. Owie herself has been employed as a personal support worker.
She emphasizes that they want to contribute to their community.
Asked what she thinks would happen if she were sent home, Owie’s breathing quickens and she shakes her head, fighting tears.
“I am not safe. Me and my children, we are not safe.”
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, support is available via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. For anyone affected by family or intimate partner violence, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
Methodology
CBC News obtained data on refugee claim decisions from the Immigration and Refugee Board’s Refugee Protection Division in an Access to Information request.
CBC excluded from the analysis claims that were not decided by the IRB on merit, for example, those that were abandoned or withdrawn by applicants.
Refugee claims can have multiple causes of persecution, so there is no way to know whether gender-based violence was the only or the determinative reason the claimant fled their home country.
