Ouch, That Might Sting

Or maybe not, the current American government doesn’t seem to care much these days what the rest of us think about their human rights record.

Canada will no longer have the right to turn back asylum seekers at the American border under a federal court ruling that deems the United States not a safe country for refugees – opening the door for a potential flood of northbound claimants.

In a surprise judgment yesterday, the court concluded that the three-year-old Safe Third Country Agreement – which denies refugees who have landed first in the U.S. the right to later seek protection in Canada, and vice versa – breaches the rights of asylum seekers under the United Nation Refugee Convention or the Convention Against Torture.

According to a joint press release from the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches, and Amnesty International

The Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches, Amnesty International and John Doe welcome the November 29 Federal Court ruling concluding that the December 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the USA violates refugee rights.

The Safe Third Country Agreement effectively closed the border to the majority of refugee claimants who came through the United States on their way to making refugee claims in Canada. Turned away by Canada, these individuals were instead forced to turn to the US asylum system for protection. In launching this court challenge, the applicants had argued that this approach would be acceptable if the US asylum system met recognized international standards for the protection of human rights, including refugee rights, but it did not.

The Court judgment finds that it was unreasonable to conclude that the USA complies with the United Nations Convention against Torture and the UN Refugee Convention and points to serious shortcomings in the US asylum system including:

* deportations of individuals from the United States to countries where they are at risk of torture,

* concerns that women who are fearful of gender-based violations such as domestic violence are often denied protection,

* broad categories that exclude individuals from refugee status, and

* a harsh one year time bar that makes it impossible for many individuals to make refugee claims if they have already been in the United States for more than one year.

(emphasis mine, image added by author and not part of original press release)

Aye, given events of the last few years the bunker doesn’t think that those are unreasonable conclusions to arrive at.