Filings say Canada did not respond before ICE sent Afghan woman to Africa

An Afghan woman who was travelling to Toronto to reunite with her family was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and later deported to the Central African Republic, according to legal submissions filed with Canada's federal government. The filings state there is reason to believe U.S. authorities tried to transfer her to Canada before removing her elsewhere, and that Ottawa did not respond.

Key facts

• Detained by ICE in Texas in December 2024 and put on a flight to the Central African Republic on 11 June 2026, her statutory declaration says.
• She holds a temporary visa to stay in the Central African Republic that expires at the end of the year.
• She has applied from there for a Canadian temporary resident permit to join relatives already granted refugee status in Canada.
• Canada has temporarily paused deportations to the Central African Republic because of the humanitarian crisis there.
• Her father and brother were ordered released by a U.S. court and entered Canada at the border to claim asylum.

What happened to this traveller?

The woman, a former nurse for Médecins Sans Frontières, left Afghanistan citing persecution of Hazaras, a minority Muslim community targeted by the Taliban, and her family's history of working for Western organisations in Helmand province. She travelled to Brazil with her brother and father on a temporary Brazilian visa, then continued by land to the United States and was detained after crossing into Texas.

She is not being named because of the risk she would face in Afghanistan if the Central African Republic repatriates her — a possibility her lawyer says remains. Her declaration says she was taken without notice from the Texas detention facility, driven to a Louisiana airport in early June, and on 11 June was handcuffed at the hands and feet and told she was going to the Central African Republic.

Why was she sent to the Central African Republic?

An ICE officer told her the agency had requested removal to the Dominican Republic, Panama or Canada, and that the first two refused while Canada did not respond, according to her statutory declaration. In deciding her father's habeas corpus case, a New Mexico district judge cited evidence from deportation officer Juaquin Quevedo that ICE had made four requests to Ottawa to remove him to Canada — most recently in February 2026 — without a response.

Removing people to countries where they have no ties has become a key part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, according to the American Immigration Council, and is used for people who cannot legally be returned home because of a credible risk of persecution.

What rules applied at the Canada–U.S. border?

The woman could not fly directly to Canada because she did not qualify for a visitor visa, according to her immigration submissions. Her lawyer, Adam Sadinsky, says she was eligible to claim refugee protection at the Canada–U.S. border: while the Safe Third Country Agreement stops most asylum seekers from crossing by land, the treaty has an exception for people with close relatives legally residing in Canada. Family submissions describe what followed as a "legal trap": U.S. authorities were willing to release the family if they could fly to Canada, but that required Canadian temporary resident permits — and Ottawa rejected the woman's application in October 2025.

What is she asking Canada for now?

She has filed a fresh application from the Central African Republic for a temporary resident permit — granted case by case to people who are otherwise inadmissible — citing long processing times in Canada's other refugee resettlement streams. She is the only member of her family not in Canada and is the last to remain in detention-related limbo; her father and brother were released and admitted at the border to claim asylum.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a statement that it cannot comment on individual cases for privacy reasons, and that the department remains committed to family reunification within its immigration programs.

What this means for travellers

The case illustrates that the Safe Third Country Agreement contains an exception tied to close relatives legally residing in Canada, and that a Canadian temporary resident permit can be sought by someone who is otherwise inadmissible. Her temporary permission to stay in the Central African Republic runs out at the end of the year; the filings do not indicate when Canada will decide on the permit application.