The former child soldier’s deportation planned for Tuesday was halted following the intervention of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.
Both ministers have agreed to let the 25-year-old Saskatoon resident stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds. Van Loan issued a stay of deportation while Kenney granted a temporary resident permit, paving the way to permanent residency in Canada.
Ottawa-based Canadian Friends of Burma thanked Kenney for his “vital role in Nay Myo Hein’s case and consistent support for the democratization process in Burma.”
“This compassionate gesture from Canada is a major sigh of relief for our supporters of the Burmese democracy movement,” said CFOB executive director Tin Maung Htoo in a news release.
CFOB said it independently verified that Hein escaped at age 13 from forced service in the Burmese military and spent the next eight years in hiding before coming to Canada two years ago.
Hein initially lived at a relative's house in Moncton. He then moved to Saskatoon to live with an uncle, where he got a job and met his common-law wife, Haymar Zin.
After a Federal Court judge turned down Hein's application for a stay of deportation on Friday, Yukon Premier Larry Bagnell, Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Burma, said in a release that the courts had “basically sentenced this man to death by sending him back to Burma.”
“I have been to the borders of Burma and met with many refugees. The fear is real and the threat is a reality,” he said.
CFOB urged people to call and fax Van Loan and Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an effort to stop the deportation.
On Saturday the group said it would like to give “special thanks” Hein's lawyer Chris Veeman, to the Saskatoon Burmese community, and to all those who sent letters and made phone calls in support of Hein.
