Canadian officials are seeing a sharp increase in the number of refugee claimants illegally crossing the U.S. border to avoid a ban on bilateral asylum.
In Quebec alone, the Canada Border Services Agency said the number of migrants from the U.S. who have been intercepted by the RCMP has tripled in the past year to 1,280 from 424.
In 2016, some 430 asylum seekers walked for hours from the U.S. through thick prairie snow to Manitoba. A group of 22 people, including a child and a baby, was caught over the weekend trying to sneak in from North Dakota.
“It is a very bad situation. The media is paying attention only to Manitoba and Quebec but it’s the same in different parts of the country,” said Janet Dench, of the Canadian Council for Refugees.
“But this is the only option these refugees have. Because of the Safe Third Country Agreement, they must take this alternate route across the border to seek asylum.”
Under the U.S.-Canada pact, introduced in 2004, refugees cannot make asylum claims in both countries, clogging the system. Unless they belong to one of the four exemption groups, they could only smuggle through the land border undetected to file an inland asylum claim later.
Refugee advocates and immigration lawyers have asked Ottawa to suspend the agreement in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies, which are seen as anti-immigrant and anti-refugee, including the travel ban and refugee-intake suspension announced two weeks ago.
Tara Seel, a spokesperson for the RCMP in Manitoba, told the Star two groups of illegal migrants — 19 on Saturday and three more on Sunday — were spotted and apprehended crossing the border near Emerson, Man. They were taken to the local border services offices to make their asylum claims.
Greg Janzen, reeve of the municipality of Emerson-Franklin, said the community has seen a steady increase in the number of migrants crossing the border in the past year since the U.S. presidential election primaries began.
“Before, we would get four, five, six people banging on the door asking for help in the middle of the night. Now, we are seeing more and more,” he said from the community complex that was opened as an emergency shelter for the latest arrivals.
“I think this has a bit to do with Donald Trump. If I were a betting agent, I’d bet this trend will continue. The weather is supposed to warm up next week and we are going to see an influx of people.”
Ontario is apparently not immune from the challenge as agencies serving refugees and the undocumented population said they have started seeing clients arriving Canada via the U.S. land border since December.
Dr. Paul Caulford, who runs the Community Volunteer Clinics in Toronto, said at least three patients were recently treated for severe frostbites in the hands and feet, while another pregnant woman said she was afraid to deliver in the U.S.
“They said they came into Canada hiding in the back of unheated unlit truck trailers after three-hour rides from New York state. They were dropped off alone, in remote Greater Toronto areas such as parks and highway at night without proper clothing or directions,” Caulford said.
“All are women and children originally from sub-Saharan Africa, originally refugees or migrants to the U.S., most there for a year. They all feared deportation from the U.S.”
Rita Chahal of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council said her agency would open claims for no more than 70 refugees a year, but since October that number has already reached 120, including 40 in January alone. More than 80 per cent of the asylum seekers are from Somalia, Ghana and Djibouti.
“They told us they were concerned about the political climate and policies with what’s happening in the U.S. They said they were afraid they wouldn’t get a fair (refugee) hearing and would be deported,” Chahal told the Star.
“We have all seen these images of refugees in Europe and the picture of Alan Kurdi lying (dead) on the beach,” referring to the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed ashore in Turkey in 2015. “We don’t want anything to resemble that here.”
For the health and safety of the migrants, Chahal said, the federal government really should seriously consider suspending the Safe Third Country Agreement to give the asylum seekers a safe passage to Canada.
The border services agency would not comment on the surge of illegal migration through the land border or speculate the cause.
Meanwhile, Janzen said the municipal council will meet with the CBSA and RCMP to come up with a protocol to deal with the continuous inflow of refugee claimants via the U.S.
“We are concerned about our border security and the safety of the people. These are border jumpers, not immigrants or refugees, yet,” he said. “This is coming out from our municipal budget. You can’t expect our ratepayers to pay for it.”
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