generalspeaking

Defining Refugees as Opposed to Illegal Entrants Bypassing Legal Migration Fundamentals

"We need to make sure, first and foremost, that we are protecting the people we are supposed to be protecting, which are the people who are seeking a refugee status."
"Some of them may not be received as refugees, might not meet the requirements of refugee claimant as stated in Canadian law. So, some of them might be sent back to Haiti and we want to make sure if they are sent back, that they won't be facing problems."
"You have to have personal reasons not to be sent back. I am afraid that a lot of them will be returned because they do not meet the requirements of refugees."
Jean-Sébastien Boudreault, head, Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers

"We have an open compassionate country, but we have a strong system that we follow."
"Protecting Canadian confidence in the integrity of our system allows us to continue to be open, and that’s exactly what we need to continue to do."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

A family from Haiti haul their luggage down Roxham Road in Champlain, N.Y., earlier this week, where they crossed illegally into Quebec to claim asylum. (Charles Krupa/Associated Press)

"Yes, we are a society with a compassionate, welcoming tradition that we are proud of, but we are also a society that believes in the rule of law and fairness."
"This [obtaining asylum status] is very demanding, and difficult and success is far from guaranteed."
"It is unfortunate that vulnerable persons have allowed themselves to be convinced that their admission as refugees to Canada and with us in Quebec would be simple, even automatic. It is not the case."
"We must not take away people’s hopes … but we have to give people the real portrait of the situation, especially to people who are still in the United States and might be tempted to try the same thing."
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard

Fearful of President Trump's stated position that he is prepared to crack down on the presence of illegal and undocumented migrants in the United States, some of those same migrants have decided to take their chances by entering Canada illegally, not at border crossings but bypassing them to declare themselves refugees seeking haven. Many of the illegal border crossers have lived in the U.S. for lengthy periods of time; many are from Africa and many more are Haitians.

Haitians were given special status by American authority to live there in the wake of the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country and its subsequent tsunami. However, that special status may be allowed to expire next year. The obvious second choice for many is to cross the border into Canada where reputedly, they stand a better chance of acceptance, and Quebec is the likeliest place to emerge into, where a large expatriate Haitian community already exists.

These migrants obviously are unaware that Canada which had a similar special status enacted for Haitians, revoked it a year ago. Perhaps they are also unaware that 50 percent of asylum seekers are turned down, mostly because they don't fit the refugee criteria. Canada's refugee system is overtaxed at the present time, with a growing backlog of refugee claimants delaying procedures to the point that Canadian regulations are badly strained. New migrants have food, shelter and medical care demands.

Canada and the U.S. have an agreement that the first country of entry is responsible for those who reach their borders, as representing "safe third countries"; a safe country where individuals may claim refugee status. Entering at official border points the routine would be to refuse entry to these migrants because they have been settled in the U.S. Bypassing the official border crossings by illegal entry ensures they will be taken into custody and their refugee claims processed, while the claimants are put up in quarters set aside for them and looked after.

To gain entry to Canada through the normal immigration process is a lengthy affair. Even so, Canada welcomes close to a quarter-million new immigrants on an annual basis. Each of whom has had to make due application at Canadian missions abroad, follow the paper process and await results which can take up to two years to complete under normal conditions. What these illegal border-crossers are doing is short-circuiting the system, cutting out the formal process to advantage themselves over law-abiding immigration applicants.

The Geneva Refugee Convention which Canada signed on to ensures that refugee protection be claimed by a small grouping of the world's migrants. It deals with victims of political persecution. It does not represent those migrants whose intention is to further their economic conditions, or those planning to avoid valid deportation orders as may occur in the United States. Migrants like the Haitians fleeing environmental-induced discomfort are not represented within the existing refugee framework.

Labels: Canada, Illegals, Immigration, Migrants, United States

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, August 17, 2017