Once again, Roxham Road made the headlines and gave rise to numerous declarations from our political representatives.
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
People from all walks of life have always been fleeing persecution and looking for a place to take refuge. François Legault affirms that asylum seekers have no reason to come to seek protection from Canada and that they would come to benefit from our services.
We are deeply shocked by these comments. First, the majority of asylum seekers are recognized as refugees or persons in need of protection by the independent tribunal (the Refugee Protection Division). The recognition criteria are limited and difficult to meet.
Mr. Legault, we invite you, your colleagues and your staff to come and spend time in our offices to meet our clients. You will be able to chat with Marie, a young Haitian victim of sexual violence; Joseph, a practicing Christian physician in Syria; Waleed, a Saudi blogger detained and whipped for a few words advocating freedom not tolerated in his country; Aleksander, a Russian, journalist and government critic; Fatima, a 12-year-old Afghan girl about to be forcibly married to a man three times her age, and Mohamed, a gay Mauritanian who faces the death penalty by stoning.
They would all have preferred to stay in their respective countries, with different personal circumstances, in the company of their friends and families, doing jobs they loved, if those countries had not forced them to flee. Asylum seekers leave their country because they have no choice. They deserve our solidarity and above all to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion.
Roxham Road is used purely for geographical reasons and is the result of a system that prohibits asylum seekers from making their claim at an official port of entry between Canada and the United States. However, an entrance concentrated in one place makes it possible to preserve the safety of the people who use it while allowing the Canadian authorities to immediately identify the individuals and process their file.
Since the implementation of asylum application procedures, many asylum seekers have been able to find their way to Canada. These asylum seekers left their country of origin in makeshift boats, by car, on foot or by plane for a segment of their journey. They have crossed sweltering deserts, taken roads through unforgiving jungles or countryside, gone through situations that put their safety and that of their families at risk. Once in Canada, they only want to report to the immigration authorities to formally request Canada’s protection.
It should be remembered that Roxham Road is only the consequence of the Safe Third Country Agreement signed by Canada and the United States in 2004. Since that time, with some exceptions, asylum seekers cannot at a border crossing to seek Canada’s protection. If they do, they will be returned to the United States and will never be able to apply for asylum in Canada again.
The only way to claim asylum in Canada from the United States is to make a claim from within Canada, hence the need to cross the border irregularly to file the asylum claim there.
If the Prime Minister wants the entry of asylum seekers to be shared more equitably between the provinces, he must ask for the suspension of the Agreement which would allow an asylum seeker to file a request for protection in no any border crossing in any province. Roxham would then no longer have its raison d’être. Conversely, closing Roxham Road while maintaining the Agreement would bring us back to the previous situation where claimants had to enter through the woods or fields in a disorganized manner and without the knowledge of the Canadian authorities.
The abolition of this Agreement has been demanded since its signature by all the stakeholders who are familiar with the reality of asylum seekers and the range of issues in the file. The Supreme Court will have to hear this case in the coming months.
In closing, it should be noted that asylum seekers can receive a work permit and thus contribute to our society. Have we already forgotten that during the pandemic we called them our “guardian angels”? They are ready to want to give back to Canadians to thank them for the security they have been granted.
* Co-signers: Chantal Ianniciellovice-president of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers (AQAADI) and Suzanne TaffotDirector of the Canadian Association of Refuge Lawyers (CAARDR)