1. What is the Safe Third Country Agreement?
An agreement signed in 2002 between Canada and the United States which ensures that a potential refugee must apply for asylum in the first safe country where he sets foot. The idea is to avoid “shopping” for host countries. A safe country means a country that respects human rights and offers strong protection to asylum seekers.
This agreement, wanted by Canada, is a one-way street because while migrants on American soil may want to try their luck in Canada, the reverse process is quite rare.
“The United States had no interest in signing an agreement which means that we will send migrants back to them when there are very, very few migrants who go the other way,” says François Crépeau, professor of public international law at McGill University.
“But after September 11, 2001, Canada had something to negotiate, that is to say all the security agreements on border control. He asked that the Safe Third Country Agreement be included in the package. And the United States included it. »
2. Does this agreement apply to all entry points?
No. It relates only to customs posts at the land border. It excludes arrivals by plane, boat, but above all, passages that are not at official entry points, such as Roxham Road.
“Canada has been had somewhere,” says Mr. Crépeau.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Professor of Public International Law at McGill University, François Crépeau
If this agreement applies only to border crossings, it is because the United States knew very well that the day they put that in the agreement, everyone would go through circuitous routes and that we would not couldn’t turn them back, he said.
3. Why is Roxham Road not illegal?
Because the migrants who use it to enter Canada are not illegal. They report immediately to Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers, who are waiting for them at the border. These are people who are trying to claim asylum in Canada rather than in the United States. The current agreement allows them to do so if they avoid an official point of entry.
4. Are migrants passing through Roxham Road “false refugees”?
No, no more than the others. Nearly half of them will be accepted as refugees, after a long process. The acceptance rate for asylum applications made at Roxham Road is slightly lower than for asylum applications registered at official points. In 2018, it was 46% compared to 55%, and in 2019, 50% compared to 59%.
5. Why is Roxham Road by far the most popular “irregular” road in Canada?
Because it is “the most organized path”, believes Hélène Mayrand, professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sherbrooke. “The government has installed quasi-permanent infrastructure there. A whole system has been put in place for the RCMP to intercept these people. The smugglers have also organized themselves. There is a kind of organized circuit. »
But also for geographical reasons: it is close to major centers, without natural obstacles, such as the Great Lakes or the Rockies, and easy to access.
6. For years, the Canadian government has been renegotiating the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. For what ?
He wants to extend its application to the entire land border, from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, including irregular entries like Roxham. Such a change would allow Canada to turn back people passing between official ports of entry.
This would be equivalent, in a way, to closing Roxham Road. But this would require the deployment of police resources to prevent the entry of asylum seekers through circuitous routes.
“How do you want to control entry to a border that is over 5,000 km long? launches François Crépeau. The United States, which has a budget ten times larger than ours, cannot prevent people from coming. How can Canada do this with a border that is two and a half times longer than the one between the United States and Mexico? »
7. Is this negotiation likely to bear fruit?
Not in the short term. Twice in the past, Ottawa has hinted that a deal was within reach with Washington: in December 2021 and December 2022. But in January, federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said he was not expect an announcement of an agreement in March during President Joe Biden’s visit to Canada.
“The United States has no interest in modifying the agreement,” said Mr. Crépeau. And Canada doesn’t have much left to offer. »
8. Can Canada decide alone to terminate the Agreement?
Yes. “The agreement provides for measures for the parties to modify and terminate it,” explains Hélène Mayrand. Both Canada and the United States may suspend it without further formality than giving written notice to the other party. »
9. Couldn’t we close Roxham instead?
This is the solution advocated by Prime Minister François Legault. But it is not without consequence.
François Crépeau is categorical: “The solution of closing Roxham Road or expanding the Safe Third Country Agreement makes no sense. It won’t solve anything at all. Migrants go elsewhere. All it does is send those people back into deeper hiding. It strengthens the criminal networks that exploit them and it allows people who promise to get them across the border to turn it into a system of human trafficking. »
10. Is there a solution?
The movements of migrants will not stop. We can distribute asylum seekers according to the reception capacity of the provinces and provide for more adequate reception mechanisms. The so-called “migrant crisis” would be less acute if they were quickly given work permits that would allow them to support themselves.