Nicaraguan refugee still in process

Alvaro Orozco, the Nicaraguan refugee who was denied status because a refugee board member didn't believe that he was gay, will be allowed to remain in Canada until Aug 9.

In February the Department Of Justice granted Orozco, 21, a two-month stay of his deportation order amid widespread media attention about his case.

"I think they recognized that April was a very short timeframe... that to have these applications filed and an outcome to move forward they need more time," says legal researcher Andrew Hwang, in the office of Orozco's lawyer El-Farouk Khaki.

"I think it's really the least they could do, facing what he was facing."

[...]

Orozco, who is currently studying to improve his English while he awaits a renewal of his work permit, says that having his case so widely known has had a negative impact on his well-being.

"It's so hard because you know everybody knows my personal life here in Canada, in my country [Nicaragua], in many countries in the world," says Orozco. "They know my life and my case. It's not easy to show in public all of your life... but this is the only way that I can show to immigration that my history of my life is true, that I'm gay."

For more about Alvaro Orozco's refugee case, check out:
www.orangehabitat.com/alvaro