Somali refugees fight immigration rules+++ Five-year wait for landed immigrant status discriminates against Somalis, court challenge claims++++ Andrew Duffy The Ottawa Citizen+++ Lawyers representing thousands of Somali refugees will argue in Federal Court that immigration rules that require Somalis to produce identity documents to gain official status in Canada unfairly discriminate against them. The court challenge is being launched on behalf of an estimated 8,000 Somalis who must wait years to gain landed immigrant status, even though they've been accepted here as legitimate refugees. A regulation, introduced by Ottawa in 1993, requires refugees who have had their claims approved to present identity documents before receiving official status. Undocumented refugees must wait five years to gain their landed status. Earlier this month, Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan vowed to reduce that waiting period to three years, saying she wanted to "end the legal limbo" for people without identity papers. But Somali leaders say the change will not end a practice that has put the lives of too many people on hold. Landed status gives people the right to sponsor relatives for emigration and makes university students eligible for lower tuition fees, bursaries and loans. Some jobs are open only to people with landed status. The federal government has argued it needs to confirm refugees' identities to ensure Canada does not become a safe haven for Somali warlords or criminals. The problem, according to Somali leaders, is that it's impossible to obtain the required identity documents from a country without a central government for a decade. Somalia erupted into clan warfare in 1991 following dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's flight from the capital. "The people who are affected by this law are mostly single mothers and children: these are not warlords," said Abdirizak Karod, director of the Somali Centre for Family Services in Ottawa. The Federal Court challenge will seek to have the federal regulation overturned on the grounds that it's discriminatory and hence unconstitutional. The court will hear pre-trial motions in the case in January and it's expected to go to trial this spring. Chantal Tie, a lawyer acting for Ottawa's Somali community, said the treatment of Somali refugees should be compared to the treatment accorded Kosovar refugees earlier this year. Many of the Kosovars did not have personal identity documents, she said, but were quickly brought to Canada and offered landed status. "What's the difference between the war in Kosovo and the one in Somalia?" she asked. "The difference is the government did everything it could to make sure they (Somalians) didn't come here." Ms. Tie said she will argue that the undocumented refugee regulations offend the Charter because they discriminate against Somalis based on their nationality and race. "Virtually everyone affected is black," she said. "And it was instituted at the time when the largest group of refugees being accepted by the Immigration and Refugee Board were from Somalia." Individual cases cited in the court challenge include one Somalian who represented his country in the Olympics, but still couldn't get landed status despite holding a fistful of press clippings. Another refugee couldn't get landed even though his seven siblings, all Canadian citizens, attested to his identity. "We should know who people are, but that's not the issue here," said Ms. Tie. "This is about whether you have specific identify documents."