White South African family denied refugee status in Canada

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Eric Williams Endre and Sonja Endre, a married couple, along with two of their children and Sonja’s parents, all came to Canada in 2016 to visit relatives living here and made refugee claim 10 days later. The Endres said they were victims of carjacking in 1995, were assaulted on their farm by four black men who entered their home and robbed them in 2004, had their home burglarized in 2013, their car stolen from outside their house in 2014 and, that same year, three black men tried to steal Sonja’s cell phone while she was working.

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The Immigration and Refugee Board denied them refugee protection, saying there was no reliable evidence they were attacked due to their race, and it was more probable they were attacked for economic reasons — to steal their possessions. The Endre family appealed to the Federal Court of Canada, the latest challenge by white South Africans seeking asylum in Canada in post-apartheid South Africa. They argued the IRB failed to adequately consider the children’s circumstances. They said their children cannot safely play in parks in South Africa; one was bullied and had been taken out of school; and their mother could not walk with her children without fearing they could be assaulted, raped or killed. Defending the IRB’s decision, the government argued concerns for the children were based on “patently unreliable racist propaganda.”

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