By IPS Correspondents
OTTAWA, Aug 17 2002 (IPS)

Canada and the United States are close to a deal that would allow the U.S. government to send 200 refugees – mainly Haitians and Cubans – to Canada each year.

But the agreement has the potential to open rifts between Canada and Cuba, two countries with good relations, over whether people who leave Cuba are automatically entitled to protection as refugees. And Canada may face trouble with the United States, which gives refuge to any Cuban who sets foot in that country.

Canada has already been criticised by the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba after nearly two dozen young Cubans who travelled to Toronto last month did not return home and instead claimed refugee status.

The Montreal-based Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), which obtained the draft agreement and released it to the media, says they expect the “side deal” to be included in a safe-third-country agreement governing Canadian refugee applicants arriving through the United States.

Under the agreement, both Canada and the United States will be able to refuse refugees who arrive at their borders via the other country. It would mean Canada could turn away as many as 15,000 refugees a year who arrive from its neighbour. Only about 200 travel through Canada to arrive at the U.S. border.

Refugee advocates have condemned the deal, saying refugee claimants will get less sympathetic hearings from U.S. officials than they would in Canada.

The side deal says Canada will accept 200 refugees annually referred by the United States, refusing them only if they do not meet this country’s laws requiring them to prove they face a credible threat in their home countries.

Most of the 200 are expected to come from the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Haitian and Cuban boat people are held without legal rights.

The refugees will be sent to Canada even if they have not shown any interest in living here, the document says.

Canada may find itself in a diplomatic bind. This country has full diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba and does not automatically grant refugee status to people who flee the Castro regime. But a U.S. State Department note said Canada would agree to accept the refugee referrals in the “spirit of its humanitarian traditions and longstanding commitment to assist individuals in need of international protection”.

But CCR President Janet Dench says the agreement is a sop to the United States, which would be forced to deal with the thousands of refugees turned back under the new arrangement.

Most of those refugees are from Third World countries and pass through U.S. airports on their way to Canada. Thousands of refugees travel to Canada via its southern neighbour because Canada’s refugee system is seen by many to be more sympathetic to people from developing countries.

Dench said Canada should retain complete control over whom it accepts as a legitimate refugee.

“Our concern is about Canada giving up its sovereignty in terms of how it chooses refugees for resettlement,” she said.

A Canadian government spokesman said no final deals have been signed with the United States.

The Canadian refugee system, which is often under attack from right-wing politicians here, became an issue again this month with the defection of nearly two dozen Cubans who travelled to Toronto for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Youth Day. The event featured a visit by Pope John Paul II.

The Cubans have applied for refugee status, but will have to prove that they have been singled out for persecution by the Cuban government.

“In Cuba one doesn’t have freedom of expression, nor freedom as a person,” said Raisal Rodriguez, 18, one of the 23 youth who escaped the watch of Cuban security police as the Pope delivered a mass.

Nine Angolans and a group of claimants reported to be from Romania and Uganda are also seeking refugee status. Many of the claimants have been holed up in residences throughout Toronto after refusing to return home. Several have moved to safe houses in Montreal.

Rodriguez told a Toronto newspaper he had made his decision well before he arrived in Toronto.

“Really, if we went back now it would be terrible because we would go to jail,” he said.

Dench says it should not matter when refugees like Rodriguez decide to claim refugee status.

She was surprised that more World Youth Day pilgrims did not skip out on their return flights. “Regularly, Canada receives 25,000 to 30,000 claims a year. Within that context, a couple of dozen is a drop in the bucket,” Dench said.

The citizenship and immigration department says it did its best to weed out World Youth Day hopefuls whom it suspected might make refugee claims. In all, the department reviewed 26,000 visa applications for the event, 6,000 of which were declined.

But Cuban Bishop Carlos Baladron said recently that from the start of the delegation’s stay in Canada, “there was a notable effort by some people living there, who were not involved in the event, to urge the Cuban representatives not to return home”.

“Never before has a delegation of the Catholic Church found itself involved in a similar situation,” he added.

A Vancouver-based immigration consultant said he is uncertain if all of the Cubans will be able to stay, since other refugees from more devastated and war-torn countries must also be considered.

“I doubt that they’ll have a (sure) claim, but they’ll have a claim,” said Joe Kennedy.

The first Immigration Tribunal hearings for the Cuban World Youth Day refugees is scheduled for October.

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