A family facing deportation has found sanctuary at a Winnipeg church.

Darrel Guenther, lead pastor at Crestview Fellowship Church, says that two years ago, a mother from the neighbourhood and her two sons were looking for a church to attend. The family settled on Crestview.

"We slowly got to know them and slowly got to understand their story," the pastor says.

Fatmata Kargbo first travelled to Winnipeg from Sierra Leone on a visitor's visa two years ago to attend a friend's wedding with her then-husband and two sons. 

Her husband returned to Sierra Leone following the event without Kargbo and their sons, divorced her, and sold all of her belongings. He has since remarried.

Guenther shared that Kargbo's situation should she be forced to return to Sierra Leone looks bleak. "She basically has nothing to go back to."

A poor socioeconomic position with few jobs available to her in Sierra Leone would leave Kargbo vulnerable and put her sons at risk, according to Guenther.

"She fears for her boys... that her husband would take the boys from her."

Kargbo has applied for Immigration to Canada under refugee status and humanitarian grounds, but her situation was not considered serious enough under Canada's Immigration requirements.

Because of the failure of her applications, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is now attempting to deport Kargbo and her children.

"She eventually ran out of legal options and was going to be deported, and is now seeking sanctuary in our church," Guenther says.

At this time, Crestview has made renovations to their basement to allow for the family to stay there under asylum.

"We've set up a couple of Sunday school rooms to be their sort-of apartment, put in a shower and a washing machine so they can do laundry and have a bunch of people doing different things for them like grocery shopping and we have an education team that are homeschooling the boys, and just trying to take care of their daily needs."

While Kargbo and her sons can come and go from the church as they please, this puts them at risk for deportation. According to Guenther, CBSA will honour their sanctuary while at the church, but the organization still has the power to take them into custody.

The situation facing Crestview in providing sanctuary for Kargbo, Guenther says, has not been one undertaken lightly.

"As believers, we are told to support and pray for our government and encourage them, and yet, at this point, we are helping someone be civilly disobedient."

In order to try and reconcile the two conflicting sides of the situation, Guenther explains that the church has openly notified CBSA that the family is staying with them in order to be completely transparent with the government.

Moving forward, Guenther says that an appeal process is being undertaken to re-examine Kargbo's request for immigration.

"Asking if we can appeal is the first step and then the appeal process would be that second step."

The appeal process for Kargbo, if granted, could take up to a year to complete.