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Looking for some advice on a CASPer prompt


Audemars

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15 hours ago, bearded frog said:

why don't you just post a generic version, it might be helpful for others

While volunteering at a food pantry in your hometown, you meet a refugee from a war -torn country who is your age. Over the months, you spend increasingly more time together, and you learn about the unimaginable difficulties he faced under the country’s former repressive regime. You become very close friends. One day, he confides in you that he is in the country illegally, and that he uses a fake document to work and help support his family. The authorities are now investigating him, and he needs you to help vouch for his fake identity.

How will you react to your friend’s request knowing that if you don’t vouch for him, he is likely to get deported and face prosecution in his home country?

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17 minutes ago, ballsortahard said:

While volunteering at a food pantry in your hometown, you meet a refugee from a war -torn country who is your age. Over the months, you spend increasingly more time together, and you learn about the unimaginable difficulties he faced under the country’s former repressive regime. You become very close friends. One day, he confides in you that he is in the country illegally, and that he uses a fake document to work and help support his family. The authorities are now investigating him, and he needs you to help vouch for his fake identity.

How will you react to your friend’s request knowing that if you don’t vouch for him, he is likely to get deported and face prosecution in his home country

I'd probably refer him to a refugee advocacy group where he can get some pro bono legal representations and offer to vouch for his personal qualities either through a letter or in person if possible in an immigration court : the person he is, the things he had to overcome to get here and the contributions he is making to the Canadian society and the community he's in here. But I would not engage in an illegal activity such as this. I would also try to explain to him that it is better to be honest now than try to defraud the government any further. 

I guess it would also depend on what kind of follow-up questions there are but this was my initial thought in a 5-minute time frame. 

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3 hours ago, DrOtter said:

I'd probably refer him to a refugee advocacy group where he can get some pro bono legal representations and offer to vouch for his personal qualities either through a letter or in person if possible in an immigration court : the person he is, the things he had to overcome to get here and the contributions he is making to the Canadian society and the community he's in here. But I would not engage in an illegal activity such as this. I would also try to explain to him that it is better to be honest now than try to defraud the government any further. 

I guess it would also depend on what kind of follow-up questions there are but this was my initial thought in a 5-minute time frame. 

Hm I like that. If only I knew refugee advocacy groups existed, lol.

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I agree with the above answer. Something like while you sympathise with your friend if you lie for him you could get himself and you in trouble, etc. While I understand why he came illegally to seek a better life, he should try to apply for refugee status through the legal process, as that is why we have a refugee system. I would offer to connect him with legal aid, etc, to help him on a path to legal citizenship, and vouch for him through that process. In the long run this would be better for him to get the services he needs, and prevent having to lie for him.

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Yes! Agreed, I really like the refugee advocacy group suggestion. If he will face prosecution in his home country, he can try to seek asylum. What you can do: sympathize, offer (emotional) support, help connect to resources. In this situation you are not qualified to be legal aid and you do not want to become involved with unethical and illegal activity. This way you can your friend get connected to groups and resources who have better knowledge of how to help him legally and have helped many of those in his situation before find more long-term solutions. 

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