Help a family in danger find safety and hope

Nosheen and her family were living peaceful, productive lives as Christians in a small town in Pakistan until, in 2014, the twin nightmares of life for many Pakistani Christians intruded upon their existence. First Nosheen received the threat of kidnapping and forced conversion to Islam of her two minor-aged daughters.Then a trumped up charge of the capital crime of blasphemy was brought against her brother, Kamran.A mob that accompanied police to Nosheen’s house shouted threats to summarily hang Kamran or burn the family in their house.The family fled through Iran and arrived in Turkey late in 2015.

They were quickly certified by the UNHCR as refugees in danger of death or extreme cruelty at home, but for seven years nothing has been done to resettle them in a third country. They have no future in Turkey, and now the specter of repatriation to Pakistan has arisen.They need to raise $59,700 CAN and find five Canadian friends to sponsor them to full and free lives in Canada.

Threat of kidnapping and forced conversion

In October 2013, Nosheen’s peaceful life as an English teacher, living with her daughters and her widowed mother was shattered by a call from her ex-husband who told her he had converted to Islam and wanted to take their daughters, then aged 4 and 8, into his new religion.In further calls he let her know he had joined Al-Qaeda and had power to harm her and her loved ones. Finally, on June 1^st, 2014, he threatened to snatch the girls.

Trumped up blasphemy charge

At 5:30 p.m. on the 20th of June, 2014, while Kamran was working in a hotel in another city, a local Muslim cleric filed with the police in their small town a report claiming that Kamran had been seen that day burning pages of the Quran outside the family house. An hour later police came to the family’s house accompanied by an irate mob shouting for Kamran to be hanged outright. One told Nosheen he would burn them all in their house. Nosheen and her mother tried in vain to explain that the charge was impossible because Kamran hadn’t been in their town for a week.

Flight

The next day the women and girls fled into hiding with a friend in Lahore. Kamran soon joined them.In November, they all traveled by bus to Tehran where they tried to apply to the UNHCR, but there the UN agency was only dealing with Afghans at that time.They were stuck ın Iran for six months during which they made two unsuccessful attempts to cross into Turkey. Finally a friend arranged visas for them to fly to Turkey where they were promptly certified by the UNHCR but have been left in limbo for seven years.

No Future in Turkey

The family’s savings were soon exhausted. Nosheen and Kamran have undocumented jobs in Istanbul but aren’t paid enough to support the family--no work permits or health and social insurance, either. Nosheen supplements full time teaching with housecleaning and accepts help from friends in the foreign community of the city to just scrape by. They find the dependency agonizing and wish to make their own way as contributing members of a free society.

Possibility of Deportation

The UNHCR has ceased its Refugee Status Determination activities in Turkey and turned over the records of previous refugee cases to Turkish police who are systematically reviewing them. Nosheen fears that a Muslim government, which will be taking info from the Pakistani embassy as well, will have no mercy on them and may send them back to Pakistan.

"I'm praying and looking forward to a safe and threat free future for my young growing daughters and my family" she says. Kamran adds, "I want to see my family breath free in a place where there is no danger of being killed because of false accusations."

Educated, productive citizens

Nosheen has a B.S. in psychology and an M.A. in English language. She has 15 years’ experience teaching English, the last seven in teaching it to refugees of multiple nationalities. She has also worked as a volunteer in a home for needy seniors. Kamran has a B.S. in electrical engineering and worked in hotel management for 15 years. Nosheen’s daughters have been successful students at the school where Nosheen teaches English.

How you can help:

As UNHCR refugees, Nosheen and her family are eligible for Canada’sprivate sponsorship program. They need the money to support them for their first year in Canada and a group of five Canadian friends to sponsor them.

According to Canadian Immigration, the funds—a minimum of $59,700 Can, more is better, must be raised first and held in their trust before the sponsorship application can move forward. The funds raised will go entirely towards their first year expenses.

If you can donate, please click the Donate button.

If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and would like to be a sponsor for this family, please contact Patricia Langlais, [email protected] .

Reach out and discover how wonderful it is to privately sponsor good people to start a new life – with your help – in Canada!

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