A warning to potential refugees

Much attention has recently been given in the press to a July 22, 2020 decision of Canada's Federal Court declaring the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the USA to be invalid. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement anyone who comes to a Canadian port of entry from the US (and vice versa) to make a refugee claim will be turned back to the US unless they have very close relatives already in Canada, plus a few other exemptions. The Federal Court found that as many of these people who were turned away from Canada were immediately detained in the USA, this violated their "liberty rights".

This decision does not mean that people may now come to Canada from the USA and make refugee claims at the ports of entry! This decision will probably be appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal. This decision will not take effect for six months. The Safe Third Country Agreement is still in force today. Further, since April, 2019 anyone who has already made a refugee claim, whether it was lost, abandoned, withdrawn or is still in process to:

1.              New Zealand;

2.              Australia;

3.              United Kingdom, or;

4.              the USA,

may not make a refugee claim to Canada. Those people may only file a more limited asylum-like claim called a "Pre-Removal Risk Assessment".