Refugee claimant in detention awaits release after reprieve

The lawyer fora paralyzed refugee claimantwho was granted a 60-day stay ofhis deportation order said he has to find out what exactly the reprieve entails, while his client awaits release from detention.

"Right now we need to articulate what it is the minister is actually granting to Laibar Singh," Zool Suleman told CBC News Monday morning.

The federal Ministry of Public Safety granted the reprieve on Sunday, a day before Singh was to be removed from Canada.

Faith St. John, the Canada Border Services Agency's Pacific Region spokeswoman, told CBC News Monday morning that necessary orders from the Public Safety Ministry are required before Singh will be released from detention. There is no word on when this will happen, St. John said.

Suleman said that lobbying efforts to convince Immigration Minister Dianne Finley to let Singh stay on compassionate and humanitarian grounds would depend on Singh's health, recovery process and the risks he might face upon his return to India.

The Immigration and Refugee Board ruledlast week the 48-year-old wasa flight risk if he was allowed to leave detention.

The Canada Border Services Agency arrested Singh on Aug. 13 at an Abbotsford, B.C., hospital, after he left a Sikh temple in the city to seek medical attention. Singh had sought sanctuary at the temple, following a deportation order issued on July 8, when his refugee claim was rejected. Singh entered Canada with a false passport in 2003.

Harpal Singh Nagra, a spokesman for the South Asian Human Rights Group, said he was with Fleetwood-Port Kells MP Nina Grewal when she got the call Sunday from Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

"He will be released. He won't be in detention anymore [in the] next 60 days, but he will be under medical supervision, so we can keep him, but he won't be in sanctuary anymore," Nagra told CBC News Sunday.