Immigration Minister: No legislation planned to stop border-jumpers

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This article was published 21/02/2017 (2901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Canada has no plans to introduce legislation to stop the flow of asylum seekers who are dodging border guards and pouring over the border into Canada in unauthorized ways.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said “there isn’t any piece of legislation being contemplated now” that would address a loophole in an agreement with the United States that requires asylum claimants to make their claim in the first country they land in.

The Safe Third Country Agreement means if someone makes a refugee claim at a land border crossing with the United States, border guards will send them back to the U.S. However, international law dictates that Canada must provide a fair hearing to asylum claimants who make a claim from within the country. That means if a refugee claimant can make it into Canada without stopping at the border, Canada cannot send them back to the U.S. and will process their claim here.

Fear of changing immigration policy in the United States has propelled an influx of claimants risking their lives to walk across the border in subzero temperatures. But Hussen said the United States asylum system remains in place and there is no reason for Canada to suspend that agreement, as has been requested by refugee groups and the NDP.

“The U.S. continues to meet its international obligations (for asylum),” Hussen said.

Canada continues to monitor the situation, and additional resources will be provided to the RCMP or Canada Border Services Agency as needed, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday. He also said he wanted to congratulate residents of Emerson for their compassion and generosity towards the asylum seekers during this time.

Hussen acknowledged there has been an increase in those coming across the border in stealthy ways and making a refugee claim this year but says there have been fluctuations in this practice over the last several years. Since January 1, 104 people have done so in Manitoba, many of them walking for hours in the darkness in freezing temperatures. Some have lost fingers and toes due to frostbite.

In January and February 2016, the Canada Border Services Agency reports there were no claimants crossing in Manitoba. There have been more than 500 since April 1 however, almost a 50 per cent increase over 2015-16, with still more than a month before the end of the fiscal year. In Quebec, RCMP reported 452 people crossed the border to make a refugee claim in January, an increase of 230 per cent over the year before.

It is an offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to cross into Canada without presenting to a border agent. However, if someone who has done so claims to be a refugee, they are processed as refugees and given a hearing.

Conservative MPs Tuesday pushed the government to put a stop to the practice.

“People running across farmers’ fields illegally cannot continue,” said Candice Bergen, the Conservative house leader and MP for Portage-Lisgar.

Conservative Immigration Critic Michelle Rempel said it is “incumbent on the government to look at that loophole” that allows the claimants to request refugee status in Canada if they bypass normal border procedures. She said the government also has to issue a strong statement that it is not safe to make this crossing and emphasize the United States remains a safe country.

“Nobody wants to see someone risk life or limb in a Manitoba winter,” said Rempel, who noted she spent the first 24 years of her life in Manitoba and knows what the weather can be like in January and February. She is now an MP for a Calgary riding.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca