REFUGEES-CANADA: Claimants Rush Border to Beat New Law

By Marty Logan Reprint | | Print |

Marty Logan

MONTREAL, Jun 29 2002 (IPS) - Border checkpoints in Canada’s two largest provinces have been swamped by refugee claimants rushing to enter before a new immigration law took effect Friday.

The new regulations are partly a response to the fear of terrorism that arose after the attacks on New York and Washington last Sep. 11. While refugee supporters say the new rules will make it harder for genuine refugees to be accepted, the government says it has widened the eligibility criteria.

Both sides agree that almost all of the hundreds of people who arrived at the border in buses and taxis in recent days need not have hurried because their cases will be evaluated using the new system.

“People hear that the law is changing and they think that it’s better to come now,” said Citizenship and Immigration spokesman Robert Gervais at Quebec’s Lacolle crossing on Friday. “It’s based on rumours.”

About 1,200 men, women and children entering Canada at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle since Jun. 1 have claimed refugee status, said Gervais, compared to 5,000 who made the claim there during all of 2001.

With extra staff working from 8 a.m. to midnight, the office 50 kilometres south of Montreal is processing 40-50 cases a day, compared to the usual 10-15, he added. But about 140 cases were still backlogged on Friday.

Sixty percent of asylum-seekers at Lacolle are from Pakistan and about 30 percent from Latin America, mainly Peru and Colombia.

“Some people have personal problems, some have religious problems,” said a young man from Pakistan, sitting on a table in the waiting room and sipping coffee from a Styrofoam cup.

Most of the Pakistani claimants have spent some time in the United States, said the man, wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Canadian rules say he cannot be identified.

The man arrived in the United States three months ago, but said he always planned to come to Canada. “It’s (known as) a peaceful country.”

Around the well-lit room about 50 men, women and children slumped on couches or chairs or talked around tables. Others wandered out to use the bathroom or buy a canned soda.

Outside, groups of men lounged around the building, under sunshine and blue sky. Some had been waiting at the checkpoint for four days.

A group of Pakistani men said they didn’t get enough food and what they did tasted bad, but they seemed happy to be in Canada.

“Somebody told us ‘you should be saved in Canada, you have rights there’,” said one man.

“There is no terrorism in Canada and everybody has human rights,” added another. “It’s a peaceful country, everybody should respect you.”

“There were a lot of problems in the U.S.,” he said. “They attacked Muslims after September 11. They gave instructions that anyone could search Muslims. There’s no respect.”

Once the refugees’ identities have been established, they will be bussed to Montreal, said Gervais, then given housing and a job or social assistance.

The border checkpoint between neighbouring Ontario and Buffalo, in the U.S. state of New York, also has been overloaded in recent weeks, according to media reports, with immigrant shelters temporarily housing people in motels.

Refugee advocates say they are unhappy that the new law provides only one person to hear a refugee claim, while previously applicants could choose to have two adjudicators. They also say the new system makes it easier to reject claimants who don’t have proper identification.

But “the major preoccupation for us about the new law is that the government has not implemented the appeal process”, said Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR).

“They’ve taken out the main positive element (of the new law) for refugees,” she added.

The immigration minister had promised the measure so that failed claimants would no longer have to appeal their cases to court. But he now says the department lacks the money and personnel to create the system.

Refugee supporters also worry about a deal signed Friday between Canada and the United States, which gives Canada the power to turn back refugee claimants to its neighbour (and vice-versa) because both nations are considered ‘safe third countries’.

“U.S. asylum practices fail to adhere to international law, respect internationally agreed-upon procedures used in determining refugee status, and appropriately apply the Convention refugee definition”, said Amnesty International in a statement.

Back at the border, a man who said he fled a refugee camp in the Congo to seek asylum in Canada guarded his emotions. “I don’t dream,” he said. “Everybody asks for refugee status.”