A 29-year-old man from Ghana has been denied asylum in Canada, with officials saying he has provided false identity documents, according to Pulse.
The man says he was persecuted in Ghana for his sexuality and was stabbed in the stomach by a group of men. He says his attackers planned to bury him alive but he was able to escape while they left to find shovels.
The man then fled from Ghana and travelled to Ecuador then through Colombia, Mexico, and the United States. He made a refugee claim in the US but crossed the Canadian border after it was rejected.
The man’s lawyer, Bashir Khan, says: "He has been accused by the member [of the board] to have had fraudulent identity documents and his identity is not clear. This is entirely incorrect and we disagree.”
Khan says the man is not at risk of deportation but will “live with the mental fear of how much longer, what's going to happen in the end."
Asylum seekers have been fleeing the US and attempting to cross the Canadian border in freezing weather following President Trump’s controversial ban on refugees and nationals from seven Muslim nations.
Though the ban is currently on hold, asylum seekers fear future immigration orders from the Trump administration.
