A Filipino health worker, set for deportation from Canada, got temporary relief with the Canadian government deferring his deportation after a huge public outcry that demanded to let him stay until he is fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Carlo Escario, 36, an intensive care unit worker at the Toronto General Hospital, had requested the Canadian immigration authorities to extend his stay for another 40 days to get him the second shot of Pfizer-BioNTech, according to local media reports. The government upheld Escario’s request after his supporters started an online petition which garnered over 8,000 signatures and also lobbied federal politicians to defer his removal until June.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) had initially rejected the request.
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The frontline worker was set for deportation last Thursday because of misrepresentation in his permanent residence (PR) application. “I am very worried about getting COVID-19 because I do not want to get sick and rely on the health care in the Philippines,” Escario had said earlier.He added that his parents have both been infected by the virus but they can’t afford to pay for the hospitalization and medication.
“I am unlikely to receive a Pfizer vaccine on return to the Philippines because the country is primarily administering the Chinese Sinovac and Russian Sputnik vaccines, which worries me. I sincerely hope that Canada will consider my work as a front-line health care worker and find that I am deserving of a short deferral of my removal,” he continued.
Escario received his first dose of the Pfizer jab in February and is scheduled to get inoculated with the second shot on June 11, the report added.
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The border agency earlier said it was not convinced that Escario would suffer any “irreparable harm” if he does not receive the second Pfizer dose. It added there is no evidence that receiving a shot from another company would have negative effects.
Escario, who originally hails from Quezon City, arrived in Canada in 2007 as a caregiver. He has been working at the Toronto General Hospital as a hemodialysis assistant since 2014. He became a permanent resident in 2010 but his status was revoked three years later, in 2013 due to misrepresentation in his permanent residence application after failing to declare he was married and had a child in the Philippines. (AW)
