Migrate to Canada Group

LEGAL CHALLENGE AGAINST SENDING REFUGEE CLAIMANTS FROM CANADA BACK TO AMERICA BEGUN TODAY IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA This 4 day hearing in the Federal Court of Canada is about a challenge to the designation of the U.S. as a safe third country for refugees. The court will hear that sending refugee claimants back to the US violates Canadian law, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Canada’s binding international human rights obligations. The Canadian C...ouncil for Refugees (CCR), Amnesty International (AI) and The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), alongside an individual litigant and her children, initiated the legal challenge in July 2017. The hearings are taking place at the Federal Court of Canada in Toronto, at 180 Queen Street West. The litigants are asking the court to look at the impact of the Safe Third Country Agreement on women, men and children who can’t find safety in the U.S. and to assess the legality of Canada sending them back to detention and potential deportation to persecution. The impacts are particularly severe for women, because of U.S. policies that close the door on women fleeing gender-based violence. The argument is that the U.S. cannot be considered a safe country for refugees. The Canadian Council of Churches has long advocated that every human being who is physically present in Canada has a legal right to life, liberty and security of person under the Charter of Rights and Freedom as per Peter Noteboom, General Secretary of The Canadian Council of Churches. The U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement as such stands in the way of guaranteeing those legal rights. The time for Canada to rely on the adequacy of the U.S. protection regime has come to a definitive end. In the absence of action on the part of Canada’s elected representatives to acknowledge the serious shortcomings of the U.S. refugee protection system, we now turn to the courts to ensure that Canada’s domestic and international legal obligations are upheld. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, implemented in 2004, refugees who present themselves at a Canada-U.S. border post seeking to make a refugee claim in Canada are, with limited exceptions, denied access to the Canadian refugee system and immediately returned to the United States. Since the Agreement does not apply to people who cross into Canada other than at an official border post, people in need of safety in Canada have been crossing in significant numbers in between ports of entry. Withdrawing from the Agreement would not only ensure that Canada meets its legal obligations, but would also allow people to present themselves in an orderly way at ports of entry, ending irregular crossings. For more information on America to Canada refugee claims and the exceptions to the general return to America rule, contact us at [email protected]

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