Asylum-seekers fleeing U.S. may find cold comfort in Canada’s courts

Reuters ^ | 27 April 2017 | Anna Mehler Paperny and Rod Nickel

[Lorianne]

Migrants who applied for asylum in the United States but then fled north, fearing they would be swept up in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, may have miscalculated in viewing Canada as a safe haven.

That is because their time in the United States could count against them when they apply for asylum in Canada, according to a Reuters review of Canadian federal court rulings on asylum seekers and interviews with refugee lawyers.

In 2016, 160 asylum cases came to the federal courts after being rejected by refugee tribunals. Of those, 33 had been rejected in part because the applicants had spent time in the United States, the Reuters review found.

Lawyers said there could be many more such cases among the thousands of applicants who were rejected by the tribunals in the same period but did not appeal to the federal courts.

The 2016 court rulings underscore the potentially precarious legal situation now facing many of the nearly 2,000 people who have crossed illegally into Canada since January.

Most of those border crossers had been living legally in the United States, including people awaiting the outcome of U.S. asylum applications, according to Canadian and U.S. government officials and Reuters interviews with dozens of migrants.

Trump's tough talk on illegal immigration, however, spurred them northward to Canada, whose government they viewed as more welcoming to migrants. There, they have begun applying for asylum, citing continued fears of persecution or violence in their homelands, including Somalia and Eritrea.

[Lorianne]

hat tip Zero Hedge

[Boomer]

Complicated issue. America is not in a good position to be paying for or accepting refugees or legal immigrants at this time and probably not for the next 25 or more years. It would be great if these refugees had a make shift camp near their home where they could be safe until it’s time to go home and rebuild their homes once the threat is eliminated. Someplace where they can have enough land to plant and grow food and maybe some live stock just like the good old days so they not only have something to do; they would be more self supporting. An international consortium made just to provide security for such places would be the only thing outsiders would need to do. Keep the peace on the inside and protect against the bad guys from the outside.

Once they are home and back to normal they can pay into the international fund to help other countries for the same reason.