Stranded in Turkey For 71 Days After Her Documents Stolen
(CTV Network) -- Stranded in a foreign country for two months, Ekaterina Usmanova admits she’s “cried all the tears [she] could cry out.”In August, the permanent Canadian resident returned to Russia for the first time in nearly three years to visit her family.
Like so many who were unable to visit one another while on opposite sides of the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced them apartOn her return trip to Toronto, the 26-year-old had a layover in Istanbul, Turkey.
That’s where her journey took a massive detour when her travel wallet and Canadian permanent resident (PR) card were stolen.As panic began to set in, she recalls thinking, "I've just lost my entire life; I’ve just lost everything I’ve worked for.”She says blind spots with the security cameras at the airport meant officers couldn’t see the culprit behind the brazen theft.Alone in a country she’d never visited before, Usmanova filed a police report and then went to the Canadian consulate in Istanbul to try and replace her PR card.
She wasn’t even allowed to enter the office and was denied access because she’s only a permanent resident, not a full citizen.Her next move was to file paperwork with the Canadian embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
