Chaos coming to Canada after U.S. decision on refugees
Kelly
Toughill, The Conversation, June 12, 2018
A recent
decision by the United States against victims of domestic violence has doomed
the Canadian government’s attempts to stem the flow of would-be refugees
flooding into Quebec from New York
A group of asylum seekers raise their hands as they approach RCMP officers while crossing the Canadian border at Champlain, N.Y., in 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz |
This
wasn’t a deliberate attack. Canada is just collateral damage in the U.S. war on
immigration.
U.S.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced June 11 that victims of
domestic violence will no longer be able to claim asylum in the U.S.
even if authorities in their home country are unable or unwilling to protect
them.
No asylum
for domestic abuse victims
Specifically,
he overturned an immigration appeals court ruling that granted asylum to a
woman who suffered domestic abuse and who could not get protection from
authorities in her own country of El Salvador.
How does
this relate to Canada?
Sessions’
proclamation puts U.S. refugee policy in direct conflict with the refugee
policy of Canada.
An asylum seeker is searched after crossing into Canada from Champlain, N.Y., near Hemmingford, Que., in 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz |
The 2002 Safe Third
Country Agreement rests on three pillars: That both countries follow
two United Nations treaties, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees and the 1984 Convention on Torture; that both have administrative
systems that fairly and properly evaluate refugee claims; and that both respect
human rights and have an independent and impartial judicial system.
Sneaking
into Canada
The
agreement requires would-be refugees seek asylum in the U.S. if they land there
first, but there are exceptions. One way around the law is to sneak into Canada
and ask for asylum without crossing at an official border.
This rule
applies to almost anyone who is in the U.S. regardless of how they got there.
For example, Central Americans may have entered the U.S. illegally after
walking through Mexico. Nigerians may have flown in with a study visa or
tourist visa.
In some
cases, people may have been in the U.S. legally for years. Realizing they will
be killed if they go home, they then come to Canada for protection because they
think they have a better chance winning a refugee claim here than in the U.S.
Some may even have applied for refugee status in the U.S. and been rejected.
(For
example, the Salvadoran woman that Sessions said couldn’t file a refugee claim
would have a very good chance in Canada if she came here — but only if she
sneaked into the country. If she showed up at an official border crossing, she
would be turned back to the United States.)
Crossings
increased after Trump’s win
It used
to be rare that people sneaked across the border to avoid the Safe Third
Country Agreement so they could ask for asylum in Canada, but that changed
after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency.
Last
year, more than 18,000 people crossed fields, ditches and streams to reach
Canada without being screened at an official border station. Most of them crossed
from New York into Quebec.
The
Quebec government was not amused. It complained about the cost of sheltering
the asylum seekers and popular opinion turned against the flood of would-be
refugees.
At the
same time, internal polling showed Canadians in general were becoming less
sympathetic to immigration, partly because of the influx of irregular refugee
claimants.
Canadian
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen moved quickly to try to reverse the trend with a
multinational publicity campaign.
Opposition
MPs have seized on the issue, hammering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to turn
back all refugee claimants who come to Canada from the U.S., even if they don’t
cross at an official border.
Trudeau
urged to quit agreement
On the
other side, many of Trudeau’s allies have urged him to abandon the Safe Third
Country Agreement, saying the U.S. no longer protects refugees as it should.
Even members of the Liberal government that originally signed the agreement are
urging
Trudeau to suspend it.
Immigration
lawyer Peter Edelmann predicted that Sessions’ ruling will force Canada to act.
“This
announcement makes it clear that the minister needs to reconsider if the U.S.
is a safe third country,” he said.
“It is
clear that for a woman who is facing violence and has a credible fear, sending
her to the U.S. is not sending her to a safe place. There appears to be no
argument that the U.S. is a safe third country for that claimant.”
Before
this week, Trudeau seemed more inclined to toughen the border and the agreement
than to abandon it.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen speaks to reporters outside the House of Commons. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle |
Hussen
recently mused about changing the Safe Third Country Agreement so that Canada
could automatically reject asylum seekers even if they didn’t enter Canada at
an official border crossing. The new system would rely on fingerprints and eye
scans taken when people first arrived in the U.S. and then made what are now
called “irregular crossings.”
It’s
messy
So, it’s
messy. But Sessions just made it much messier by flat-out promising to return
women to homes and countries where they are likely to be beaten and even
killed.
There are
other areas of refugee law where the two countries diverge, but this is one the
Liberal government will not be able to ignore.
The prime
minister has staked the moral authority of his government on gender equality.
From the gender-balanced cabinet (remember “Because it’s
2015”?) to the G7 focus on female empowerment and economic equality,
raising the status of women has been the signature value of his government.
If
Trudeau abandons the Safe Third Country Agreement to allow more refugees to
enter at the border, he will be going against the trend of public opinion in
Canada and handing the Conservative Party a ready-made issue for the next
federal election.
If he
strengthens the Safe Third Country Agreement, he will knowingly risk the lives
of women who are hunted in their own homelands.
If he
does nothing, the flow of asylum seekers sneaking into Canada will increase,
and he will be labelled weak and indecisive.
Remember Alan Kurdi,
the Syrian toddler whose death on a beach in Turkey helped turn the election
for Trudeau? Someone in the Prime Minister’s Office must be shivering with the
thought the next election could feature the body of a woman who was turned away
from Canada because we consider the United States a safe country.
Chaos is
coming.