It seems as if the world has turned every venture into a profit and loss game. The immigration process to different countries earns them so much revenue that most of the Embassies and Consulates work on the earnings. Though everyone knows that the immigration factor is pure chance everyone tries to buy this lottery ticket. In Pakistan, where there is so much black money, with corrupt people who try to send their children and families abroad, the system has become harsher and bottle necked.
I am one of those few who tried to migrate, despite the fact that I had no unlimited resources. My husband, two daughters and I applied for skilled labour category to Canada in 2004. (My case number is B-046 862 325). I sat for an IELTS test that cost eight thousand rupees in 2004. Then started our story of woe, it was an unending expensive venture, but wanting a better future for my girls, I applied. I was forty seven years old when I applied thinking that I would have at least fifteen working years in Canada. This went on and on for the last eight years, one of my daughters got married and the other left for Oman to work. The laws for immigration are so flexible that they can easily get out of not giving you immigration on any pretext. I had to go for my medical, now I am divorced and my daughters were not sure if the Canadian Immigration office would consider them eligible. It does not end here, after my medical, which again cost money and usually is the last step, the Canadian Embassy sent me a letter asking for documents that dated back to 1984, then I had been living in Karachi and I had moved to Lahore now. The non availability of these random and useless documents was just an excuse to drop my case. Innumerable police clearances and reports and so much legal documentation and verification cost me in hundreds of thousands of rupees that I could ill afford.
I would like to ask these Embassies if this is legal, or ethical on their part? They have to make a person run around, spending thousands of rupees, from under developed countries and then drop the case like a hot potato? I spent thousands on updating them with any change in my life, such as moving house or changing my job, arranging sixteen hundred thousand rupees to deposit in the bank as show money? I sold all my jewelry. I am a teacher and an honest hard working person who was looking for a better opportunity. If I had been the nationality of any developed country, I would have taken them to court, but I have been brought up well by my hard working and honest parents, but maybe they deserve all corrupt people who can take asylum with looted money from Pakistan. I hope that my case will be reopened and reconsidered.
LALA RUKH PARACHA,
Lahore, April 27