Canada reviewing asylum agreement with United States
Trudeau calls U.S. child migrant policy ‘unacceptable’
OTTAWA — The U.S. policy of separating child migrants from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and detaining them, is “unacceptable,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today.
“What’s going on in the United States is wrong,” Trudeau told reporters prior to the sudden reverse in policy by the Trump administration Wednesday afternoon.
“I can’t imagine what the families who are living through this are enduring,” he added, saying this “is not the way we do things in Canada.”
Trudeau has been called upon to condemn the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance policy,” under which asylum seekers who cross illegally into the U.S. are charged with federal crimes and separated from their children, who are detained in guarded, fenced enclosures. Until Wednesday, the prime minister had remained largely silent on the issue, saying only he did not want to “play politics” over immigration issues.
Now, it appears the chorus of condemnation over the U.S. child migrant separation policy has spurred a change in direction south of the border.
President Trump signed an executive order later Wednesday that is expected to keep migrant families together while also maintaining security on the border.
It remains unclear whether this order will entirely reverse his administration’s zero-tolerance policy.
Meanwhile in Canada, calls resumed for the government to suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement. The Canadian Council for Refugees said Wednesday the U.S. cannot be considered a safe country for refugees in light of the “disturbing” events at the U.S. border.
The Canadian government is monitoring the changes in U.S. immigration policy and what effects they will have on asylum seekers in the United States, namely on their rights to due process in making asylum claims and appeal rights, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said.
But it’s too early to say yet whether the U.S. zero tolerance policy will infringe on those rights, he added.
“This is an evolving situation, we have to, of course, take it into consideration and see how (the U.S. zero-tolerance policy) impacts the agreement,” Hussen told The Canadian Press Wednesday.
“We can’t make rash decisions.”
Both the Canadian government and the UN Refugee Agency conduct analyses to ensure U.S. immigration policies comply with international obligations and the Safe Third Country agreement.
“Any changes that the U.S. government introduces to immigration and how that impacts the asylum system ... we have to see that and analyze that before we make any decisions.”
Hussen echoed Trudeau’s reaction to the images of children being torn from the arms of their parents, also calling it “wrong.”
“As a father, as a Canadian, I believe strongly that the first objective should be the security and safety of children.”
The Canada Border Services Agency does detain some immigrants to Canada who are considered a flight risk or a danger to the public, and those whose identities cannot be confirmed. Canadian policy on child migrants allows detained parents to keep their children with them in holding centres if other alternatives cannot be found.
Concerns have been raised in the past over the number of migrant children detained every year by Canadian border officials.
Last year, 162 minors were detained or housed with their parents in holding centres.
That number has been going down, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said. Last November, he issued a directive to the Canada Border Services Agency to keep children out of detention and keep families together “as much as humanly possible.”