WINNIPEG — While most 13-year-old girls are meeting friends at schools and shopping malls, Rubab Raza has not ventured beyond the small fenced grounds of the Crescent Fort Rouge United Church in more than three months.

Hoping to avoid deportation to Pakistan, Rubab spends her days inside the Winnipeg church along with her parents and five siblings.

The only time she steps outside is to use the pocket-sized playground lying inside the church's perimeter.

"When we could go outside and go to school, and my Dad could go to work, I think our life was much better," says the thin girl with bright brown eyes.

Her father, Hassan Raza, steps outside only to smoke cigarettes.

"We can't go to a dentist or doctor when we're having tooth pain," Rubab said.

"My mom's been having chest pains, but there are some medication people who have been (coming to the church and) helping us out."

The church has been providing food, lodging and home schooling to the Raza family. Children from the congregation and other churches come to visit the Raza kids to give them some semblance of a social life.

The Razas are not alone. At any given time, several churches across Canada are providing sanctuary for individuals or families.

The longest ongoing case is believed to be in Vancouver, where Amir Kazemian of Iran has been holed up in St. Michael's Anglican Church since June 2004.

It's a big decision for churches that take on the responsibility. Because sanctuary is a custom rather than a recognized legal right, church officials can be jailed or fined up to $50,000 for helping people avoid deportation.

"We just took a deep breath and ... didn't think we could live with ourselves if we said no to this family," Rev. Barb Janes said of the Razas, who were hours away from being deported when a family friend approached the church.

"Then the logistic piece kicked in and we thought, 'Oh my gosh. We need people to go grocery shopping,' and the list went on and on and on."

Police have the right to enter churches and seize refugees, although they have rarely acted on it.

The only recent example of that was in Montreal in 2004 and involved an Algerian man who was wanted on an arrest warrant for charges stemming from a protest.

Often, authorities will wait for refugees to leave the church to apprehend them, which is why the Razas are so reluctant to go outdoors.

In Marystown, N.L., Alexi Portnoy was deported after he left the Sacred Heart Parish church and was stopped for speeding. The Israeli man is now in Mexico, while his wife and five children remain inside the church.

The federal government defends its refugee system as a fair way to determine who can stay in the country and who can go.

"Canada has an internationally recognized refugee determination system which (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Antonio Guterres praised as one of the best in the world," Pema Lhalungpa, press secretary to Immigration Minister Monte Solberg, said in an e-mail.

But critics say it is almost impossible to reverse a rejection because the appeal process is an ineffectual maze of red tape.

"There are probably eight to 10 different ways of (appealing) a decision once it's made," said Mary Jo Leddy of the Ontario Sanctuary Coalition.

"But the sum of all of them doesn't equal a really serious appeal on the merits."

Appeals are usually handled behind closed doors by bureaucrats, Leddy said, instead of at an open hearing.

The Razas want to stay in Canada because, as Shia Muslims, they fear prosecution by the Sunni majority.

Their claim was rejected by Ottawa and their appeals have also been turned down.

The Portnoys want to stay in Canada because they say they would face discrimination in their native Israel because they were non-Jewish Russian immigrants.

They also say their children have health troubles, including cystic fibrosis, that can be better treated in Canada.

Despite having spent several years in Newfoundland and having jobs, they were rejected in part because the father has a 10-year-old conviction for driving a stolen car in Israel, according to supporters.

"We felt there must be some oversight in a process that would not allow a family that is sustaining themselves to stay here, especially when the community wants them," said Joanne Mallay-Jones, who chairs a committee of parish members supporting the Portnoys.

Both the Portnoys and Razas have young children that were born in Canada, yet the families are still subject to deportation.

"(The Razas) are a good family and we want them back in the community, living a normal life as soon as possible," said Janes, who is now hoping the immigration minister will personally intervene and grant the family the right to stay on humanitarian grounds.