It was not until December when Nicola applied for a US visitor’s visa to play basketball with the school that Canada Border Services Agency was alerted by their American counterparts that his fingerprints matched a former failed refugee claimant with the same name but a different age.
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Nicola said in South Sudan where he’s from, students constantly switch schools, and are rarely asked or told specifics on their age.
Nicola now remains in custody in Canada, and although he did not speak at a dention briefing held on Tuesday, his testimony from an earlier hearing was made public, when he told officials that his mother did not know his real age. We always keep moving to different schools, and over there, they do not ask your age.
“(I’m sorry for what) they have to deal with”, Nicola told the hearing.
Nicola pled for forgiveness for what he believes to be an honest mistake, describing his escape from war-torn South Sudan as an effort to help support his mother back home. Nicola had been living with his basketball coach, Pete Cusumano, for six months by the time his actual identity and age had been uncovered by the Canada Border Services Agency. “I did not come here to harm any people or do something bad”.
It was not until December when Nicola applied for a USA visitor’s visa to play basketball with the school that Canada Border Services Agency was alerted by their American counterparts that his fingerprints matched a former failed refugee claimant with the same name but a different age.
Nicola attended a detention briefing on Tuesday and has been ordered to remain in custody in Canada for now.
Canadian border officials have steadfastly refused to release Nicola, and continue to refuse him the option of returning to South Sudan now, before he faces further punishment en route to a potential extradition.
Nicola’s fingerprints matched those of a man who had applied for entry to the United States in 2015, and the application to the United States listed his birth year as 1986, while the visa application he used to gain entry into Canada marked his birth year as 1998.
“I understand your desire to [go home], but the way you have gone about doing that is frankly, quite illegal”, Currie said. “Does anybody think he’s 17 years old?'”
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Nicola’s next hearing is scheduled for May 24.
