THE CANADIAN TIMES

Claudia Londono believes that if Canada deports her family to Colombia they will be abducted and killed by members of a guerrilla organization that has threatened her life.

“My son is in danger, my little one, my husband. All things happened because of what I did . . . to help my country,'' says the Mississauga mother who, with her husband and two boys, has been ordered onto a plane this Saturday bound for Bogata.

Londono, 40, says her family is in danger because of her work as a government psychologist treating imprisoned members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, best known by its Spanish acronym, FARC.

The group is known for abducting and murdering prominent citizens, including Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who was subjected to six years of imprisonment and torture in the Colombian jungle. Londono's job in the mid to late 1990s was to convince FARC members to renounce ties with the guerrillas.

In documents filed as part of a claim with Canadian immigration authorities, Londono says she received written and spoken threats over the years to “be careful or (she) could end up dead.” She was also sent a book detailing what FARC did to punish people who disobeyed them, she says. The international group Human Rights Watch has produced reports detailing how FARC has tortured people by beating them, cutting off ears and fingers or disemboweling them.

Those threats forced Londono, her husband, 43 and their now teenaged son Sebastian to first flee to the U.S. in 1999, where their 4-year-old was born. After being unable to get immigration status in the U.S., they crossed into Canada in 2008 and made a refugee claim.

Londono says after they left the country the threats continued through calls and letters to her mother's home in Colombia telling her that her daughter's work meant she would always be a target.

A chilling letter, signed by a FARC commander and addressed to Londono last year states they know where she is, she does not “deserve to live” and they will see her again “just like it happens with everybody.” The letter, written in Spanish, was sent to Londono's mother.

In Canada the couple works as drivers, she for a company that provides assessments for medical insurance claims, her husband for a trucking company. Their 13-year-old son is graduating from Grade 8 at Sts. Martha and Mary Catholic School, where he played baseball and competed in track and field.

They have tried and failed several times to obtain refugee status. A final application made on “humanitarian and compassionate grounds” is pending.

In one letter Sebastian, 13, describes his mother's depression and fears his little brother and family will be murdered in Colombia.

NDP Leader Jack Layton's office contacted Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on behalf of the family, asking for help. A spokesperson for Layton said Kenney's office wrote back that the request was denied.

Kenney's press secretary, Candice Malcolm, told the Star her office cannot discuss individual cases due to privacy laws.

The family's fight to stay in Canada began in 2010, when the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada denied their request for refugee status.

The tribunal rejected Londono's claims and ruled that Londono's credibility was damaged because the family made no effort to stay legally in the U.S. before fleeing to Canada.

Londono says that is untrue. She showed the Star what she says were temporary work permits obtained in the U.S. They left the originals with a friend when they crossed the border.

A Canadian lawyer told them they did not need to produce the documents for the tribunal, she says, though the couple's lawyer says her clients were made aware that original documentation was required well in advance of the hearing.

If the family is deported, their plane will land in Bogota at 10 p.m. Saturday. Londono says the family has a few places they can stay but they will have to go into hiding.

Londono says when she began working with FARC members she was young and idealistic, believing she could be a “hero.”

The threats prompted her to leave the position after one year.

After a one-month visit to the U.S. she resumed work with a prison psychologist in Colombia outside the penitentiary's walls.

Seven months later her husband was threatened by armed men in a grocery market, she says. The police told her to identify the men but she was too afraid, she says.

They moved in with relatives but a call warning that her infant son could be in danger pushed them to go to the U.S. on tourist visas in 1999.

After attempting several times to work and seek asylum in the U.S., they illegally crossed the border into Canada in 2008.

The tribunal says if Londono was afraid for her life she would have left Colombia for good after the threats began or would have chosen to come to Canada instead of first living for close to 10 years in the U.S.

Londono says she was not aware that her family could seek refugee status in Canada until several years after they left Colombia.

She says after she left, FARC continued to harass her family, ransacking a house belonging to her parents and posing as school friends to try to persuade her mother to say where she was.

Her husband, Juan Martinez, says people ask why they are still afraid after so many years. Martinez said FARC is “on top of you for the rest of your life.”