She Was Coming To Canada As A Refugee From Lebanon. Then The Pandemic Struck.
Their fifth-floor apartment window was flung open to the hot sun when Selam Nega and her three-year-old boy noticed a plume of smoke mushrooming over the Port of Beirut, about three kilometres north.
Concerned, she grabbed Dani and ran to the stairs.
Suddenly, what felt like a powerful earthquake rattled the building. A sharp blast violently shattered windows all around them, as they ran outside. The city, reduced to rubble and shattered glass, had descended into chaos.
Neither Nega nor Dani were injured. She’s concerned about structural damage to their apartment, but is afraid to leave.
“It is a desperate situation, especially now that it’s been one thing after another,” Nega, 33, told HuffPost Canada with help from a translator. “First, with the economic crash, then the inflation, then the coronavirus, and then the explosion. It keeps getting worse and I’m at the end of my wits.”
Nega didn’t think she’d still be in Beirut at this point, not since she got life-changing news in early 2020 that her and Dani’s refugee application for permanent residency in Canada had been approved.
Watch: Slow motion footage of Beirut explosion. Story continues below.
After enduring years of trauma and poverty in first Ethiopia and now Lebanon, Nega could finally guarantee Dani an education and a “good life,” she said. Soon, she would hear more about travel arrangements, officials at the Canadian embassy told her.
“I was feeling happy and hopeful,” Nega said. “This will never be my country. But when I go to Canada, I’ve heard it’s possible for people to build homes and feel like this is where they belong.”
Days after Nega received official approval in March, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus a pandemic and Lebanon shut its borders, making travel to Canada impossible. The weeks ticked by for Nega and Dani, marked by silence from Canadian officials, even after Lebanon began allowing some commercial flights in early...
