Refugee Claimant Vedat Peker Deported

by steffanileman | February 25, 2011 at 01:08 pm

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Peker chooses Turkish Jail over Canada Hilton and thanks Canada for not torturing him; physically that is...

Midnight Express is now Canadian Express for some seeking asylum in Canada. If you have any Hollywood horror flick misconceptions about Turkish jails you may want to review them now. Vedat Peker has decided to exchange Canada’s hospitality for one year and fifteen days in a Turkish jail called the Metris Correctional Facility in Istanbul, Turkey’s proud answer to European Union’s bitching about the country’s penal system. Having arrived just after Midnight at Istanbul for an early morning snack, Peker was all smiles after his month-long incarceration at Canada Hilton.

Peker was arrested last month by the Canada Border Services Agency after he made a refugee application in Vancouver. Government claimed he was a public safety risk. His $500/hour lawyer couldn’t convince the Immigration & Refugee Board to release him. Peker complained that, since he didn’t speak any English and no inmate spoke Turkish, he was in an unbearable solitary confinement. Is there a case here for making Turkish compulsory at Canada’s schools? Suffering from depression and loneliness, he finally waived his right to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment and signed a written request to be sent back to Turkey, knowing that he’d be going straight to a Turkish jail.

Vedat Peker is the older brother of Sedat who’s been serving a 14-year sentence on charges of running a crime organisation and is currently being tried as a suspect of Ergenekon for conspiracy to overthrow the Turkish government. Vedat Peker was sentenced in absentia on a charge of membership in the same organisation after wiretap evidence revealed that he had addressed his brother as “Chief” in a telephone conversation. Wiretapping has become Turkey’s biggest government occupation, with an estimated 100,000 citizens’ telephone conversations on the candid recorder.

How do you spell Roquefort Cheese?

Vedat’s brother Sedat Peker is said to have turned his prison ward into a 5-star resort with gourmet French Roquefort cheese, Turkish coffee and cappuccinos served to his fellow inmates. He has decorated the ward with expensive oil paintings and installed high-definition TV’s as well as a machine for making his favourite Turkish delicacy called kokorec, the baked sheep head, not to be confused with Indiana Jones' baked monkey head. You'll love kokorec if you can close your eyes and forget about the skull. After all, you eat other parts of the animal since they don't put the whole body on the plate. The only problem Turkish authorities have with this arrangement is, they can't spell or pronounce Roquefort.

Peker said before departure that he’s grateful to the Government of Canada for his humane treatment. This probably means that he’s surprised he wasn’t tortured; physically that is...

Peker’s deportation, escorted by two CBSA officers, has cost Canada an estimated $25,000.

In a letter addressed to the author about another deportation, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said that the prerogative to remove undesirables is essential to Canada’s immigration policy.