Policies being reviewed to help migrants: Harris

As migrant worker advocates and Niagara multicultural organizations call for changes to immigration policies to help asylum seekers — including thousands housed in Niagara Falls hotel rooms — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada associate deputy minister Scott Harris says those policies are being reviewed.

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change organized rallies across Canada on the weekend, including in Niagara Falls on Sunday, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, while calling on the federal government to provide permanent resident status for all migrants and refugees, including undocumented people.

“IRCC has been exploring options for what we might do for those who do not have status in Canada at the present time and, obviously, those are complex policy issues,” Harris said.

“The minister (Sean Fraser) will consider those options and bring forward what he deems appropriate,” he added.

Welland Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre executive director Janet Madume and Niagara Folk Arts Centre executive director Emily Kovacs have both called for the elimination of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) with the United States, blaming it for the influx of people crossing into Canada illegally.

Harris said crossing into Canada at unofficial border crossings such as Roxham Road is “technically illegal,” and people entering the country at those locations are arrested and referred to Canada Border Security Agency operations for processing.

“That being said, we’re dealing with people who are in need of protection and in some cases they’re very desperate to get that protection, so we tend to refer to it as ‘irregular migration’ and we take our obligations and process those people in accordance with international standards,” he added.

Harris said the agreement with the U.S. includes a provision allowing Canadian border officials to deny entry to asylum seekers at ports of entry, “the premise being if you’re seeking safety, you should do so at the first safe country that you can.”

But the agreement has a loophole whereby those entering at unofficial entry points, such as Roxham Road, cannot be turned back.

Harris said the federal government is working with U.S. immigration officials regarding the modernization of the agreement, although he could not provide more details.

“It is a matter of international negotiation with another country and the details of which need to be tightly held,” Harris said.

“I wouldn’t at this point be able to speculate about any changes to the STCA … partly because this is open to negotiations right now and I wouldn’t want to do anything that would interfere with those discussions going forward.”