Amnesty International urges feds to suspend refugee deal with U.S.

OTTAWA — Amnesty International is calling on the Canadian government to suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States in light of a controversial refugee policy implemented this week by the Trump administration.

The new U.S. policy, adopted earlier this week, says asylum-seekers who arrive in the U.S. at its southern border are barred from filing for refugee protection if they failed to file a protection claim in a transit country.

The move would disqualify thousands of migrants who have travelled through Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S.

The new U.S. policy no longer guarantees asylum-seekers the same legal rights as those offered in Canada and could see some migrants sent back to countries where they face risks of violence and persecution, Amnesty International says.

Canada’s agreement with the U.S. is based on the principle that people seeking refugee protection must file their claims in the first safe country they arrive in, unless they qualify for one of a few exceptions.

Canada officially considers the United States a safe country for refugees because it gives access to comparable legal protections. So if an asylumseeker comes to Canada at an official border crossing from the United States and tries to claim refugee protection, he or she will be refused entry and encouraged to make a claim in the U.S. – the “safe country” from he or she just came.

“The Safe Third Country Agreement has long been premised on the equality of access to refugee protection in the United States and Canada. This (policy change) demonstrates very clearly that the U.S. system will no longer provide protection for a category of refugee-protection claimants, and for that reason we call for it to be suspended,” said Justin Mohammed of Amnesty International Canada.

The agreement has provisions saying people turned back to the U.S. by Canada must not only have access to the U.S. asylum system, but they also cannot be transferred to other countries prior to having asylum hearings.