No obligation to help ‘Snowden’s Angels’

Re: Refugee status urged for Snowden’s Angels, July 18.

The attempts by a group of Canadian lawyers to have the Federal Court of Canada order the minister of immigration, citizenship and refugees to speed up the resettlement of their clients in Canada reveals a rather basic misunderstanding of both Canadian and International law.

No country, including Canada, has an obligation to protect refugees that are not on its territory. The 1951 Convention on Refugee Status prohibits signatory countries from engaging in refoulement — the forced return of an individual to a country where that person has a well-founded fear of persecution.

Canada’s distinguished tradition of resettling refugees located elsewhere is entirely voluntary, prompted by a policy of rendering humanitarian assistance.

If their clients are facing imminent danger of being refouled to Sri Lanka, the lawyers in question should be dealing with UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose office has responsibility to ensure that China, a signatory to the convention, does not deport anyone with a wellfounded fear of persecution. Raphael Girard, Ottawa