Blair studying ways to close border loophole
Asylum-seekers at irregular crossings target
THERE ARE WAYS... WE COULD APPLY THE AGREEMENT MORE BROADLY ... (AND) DISINCENTIVIZE THEM.
OTTAWA • Border Security Minister Bill Blair says he is talking to lawmakers in the United States about closing a loophole in Canada’s border agreement with the U.S. — one seen as giving asylum-seekers reason to cross into Canada through fields and forests.
The Safe Third Country Agreement says asylum-seekers cannot claim refugee protection in Canada if they arrive at an official border checkpoint from a country that is considered safe, such as the U.S.
But they can claim refugee status if they are already in Canada, which is why tens of thousands of asylum-seekers have been crossing into Canada through unofficial entry points on foot.
“There has been some discussion about how we might apply the agreement to those who present themselves at a place other than the border where there’s clear evidence that they’ve come from the United States, that they were in a place that was, in fact, a safe third country, or if they’ve made application in the United States and they have legal travel documents in the United States,” Blair told The Canadian Press Friday. “There are ways, we believe, that we could apply the agreement more broadly to those people and therefore disincentivize them from crossing irregularly.”
Canada first began experiencing an influx of “irregular” border crossers in early 2017, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would end a program that offered temporary protected status to migrants from several countries in the U.S.
More than 40,000 asylum-seekers have since arrived in Canada from the U.S., avoiding official border checkpoints where they would have been turned back.
The issue has sparked calls for Canada to suspend or amend the agreement.
Blair said the U.S. has also had people crossing irregularly from Canada into America and could benefit from changes.
“There are ongoing discussions,” Blair said. “The agreement worked quite effectively for well over a decade and continues to work at regular points of entry and at our airports, but unfortunately there is this exemption that exists in the current agreement that allows people to avoid its terms if they present themselves at an irregular border point, so that’s one of the things we are hoping to address.”
An internal memo shows the Trudeau government has been working since 2017 to update the Safe Third Country Agreement.
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel has been calling on the government to close the loophole in the agreement for more than a year to prevent those trying to “jump the queue” in Canada’s immigration system.