One of the city's refugees getting kicked out of Canada disappeared today, leaving his wife and children.

According to local businessman Rick Karp, who has been assisting the refugee families in the Yukon in their battles to remain here, the Zuniga-Morales were ordered to report to Whitehorse International Airport at 6:30 this morning to return to Costa Rica.

However, the father, Elliel, was AWOL when the family arrived at the airport to head back.

Katherine, the mother, and her two children got on the plane alone.

'She's going to be all on her own trying to look after these kids,' Karp said.

Karp, who was at the airport with them this morning, said the Zuniga-Morales family is afraid of returning to Costa Rica.

He was told the family owned property in Cost Rica but that organized criminals took over the property and threatened their lives, causing them to flee to Canada.

'She is in danger going back to Costa Rica,' Karp said of Katherine.

She told him: ' I'm going to have to hide in Costa Rica.''

He described her condition as: 'frightened out of her mind.'

That fear was too much for Elliel, who chose to hide here.

'The husband, I guess, was just too frightened to go back and has disappeared.'

Karp wondered what is worse hiding in Canada or hiding in Costa Rica, where they could be in danger.

According to Karp, on some of the forms the family filed to the federal government, they wrote that they were afraid for their lives.

The family was rejected in all of their attempts to be permitted to stay in Canada.

'The refugee board has torn the family apart,' Karp said.

He pointed out that Ottawa has acknowledged their situation since Katherine's mother, who is in Toronto, has been permitted to stay in Canada.

Angela Battiston, a spokeswoman with Canada Border Services in Vancouver, said today that if a person fails to show up for deportation, then a warrant for his or her removal from the country will be issued to all Canadian police agencies.

'They would be arrested,' she said of someone dodging deportation.

Karp is unhappy with the federal officials because they had written to the family and had warned them they had to show up at the Whitehorse airport by 6:30 a.m. to start the journey out of Canada.

When the family showed up, there were no federal officials there to ensure they had made it on time or to assist them.

'There was no one there to make sure she got on the plane,' said Karp.

Battiston said officials meet with deportees when they are about to leave Canada. She said it's likely the family won't be taking off for Costa Rica from Whitehorse but from Vancouver, which is where they'll probably meet with officials.

Karp said both Katherine and Elliel were working before getting deported.

As well, the growing Latino community as a whole is contributing a lot to the Yukon.

He pointed out that a number of them are creating a Latino newsletter for the territory that will be trilingual Spanish, English and French.

'That's the contribution that's being made,' said Karp.

'It's embarrassing to call ourselves Canadian when we treat people like this.'

Karp noted there is support in the community for this family to be permitted to stay in Canada. A petition was circulated over a few days and more than 200 people signed it, said Karp.

'They're really nice people,' he said of the family.

As for Katherine and the children, daughter Gressly and son Dirik, the Yukoner will stay in touch with them since she is fighting to get back into Canada for good on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

'She's going to try because she can't stay in Costa Rica.'

As for Elliel, Karp has no idea where he went.

An estimated 50 refugees arrived in Whitehorse during 2004, many coming to the territory by bus from Toronto.