 
Letter to Immigration Minister Judy Sgro
Concerns re Appeal Process and Safe Third Country
19 February 2004
Hon. Judy Sgro,
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
House of Commons,
Ottawa, K1A 0A6
Dear Ms. Sgro,
Congratulations on your appointment as Minister of Citizenship
and Immigration.
As the voice of seven major Christian churches working together
for social justice, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives,
calls on you to use your position for greater justice on behalf
of refugees.
In this spirit, we bring to your attention some serious concerns:
1) the need to implement the Appeal Division; 2) our opposition
to implementation of the Safe Third Country Agreement and 3) concerns
about the potential negative impact on refugees of departmental
restructuring.
First, there is an urgent need to implement the Appeal Division
that was part of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of 2002.
When the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was adopted there
was a provision for an Appeal Division that would offer a merit-based
appeal for refugee claimants who had been denied.
Yet when the act was implemented, the Appeal Division was not put
in place. At the time, your predecessor gave us assurances that
it would be implemented within a year, after the backlog of cases
had been reduced. But more than a year and a half later, there is
still no appeal procedure. In June of 2003 we sent Mr. Coderre over
a thousand letters from our constituency calling for implementation
of an appeal process.
Although, as Mr. Coderre claimed, there are other routes of appeal,
they are very limited in scope and do not provide any legal recourse
for the majority of denied claimants who believe their case has
not been heard in a full and fair way.
The lack of a merit-based appeal has left refugees and their supporters
in a number of local churches feeling the only avenue left to protect
refugees and save their lives is to give sanctuary, while lobbying
to get the removal order rescinded. Those offering sanctuary believe
that they are morally justified in doing so as long as the government
is not respecting its own law by not implementing the appeal provision
of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of 2002.
The second concern is the Safe Third Country Agreement, which was
negotiated with the United States. We believe that the U.S. is not
a safe place for many refugee claimants. A number of its asylum
law provisions provide less protection than international law and
their procedural safeguards do not ensure adequate protection.
Refugee claimants who have no identity documents face mandatory
detention. Often they end up in jails with criminals, where they
have no interpretation or access to state-funded legal counsel.
The U.S. tends to detain people for immigration purposes much more
frequently than does Canada. In the year 2001, it was reported some
4000 minor-aged children were in detention, some in juvenile criminal
facilities.
In the 'Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement' contained in the
regulations to the Border Agreement, the government recognizes that
the Agreement will have discriminatory impact on certain categories
of refugee claimants. The Statement admits: “the proposed
regulations will likely have differential impacts by gender and
with respect to diversity considerations.”
There is also a very real danger in the refoulement for asylum
seekers (return to situations of danger and persecution), as the
US government clearly demonstrated in the case of Mr. Maher Arar.
If the Safe Third Country Agreement is implemented, we fear that
it will give rise to an increase in illegal border crossings and
trafficking, which can endanger asylum seekers.
Finally, we are concerned about the potential negative impact on
asylum seekers of Canada’s recently announced plan to transfer
all immigration enforcement activities from Citizenship and Immigration
Canada to the Border Services Agency. We are particularly concerned
that the transfer of responsibility for Pre-Removal Risk Assessments
(PRRA) will mean that security preoccupations of the Border Services
Agency will overshadow the fair assessment of whether individuals
need Canada’s protection. We are also alarmed about reports
that transfer of port of entry functions, which include the initial
interview and eligibility decision for refugee claimants, is also
being considered. We strongly oppose such a move, as it could seriously
compromise Canada’s fair treatment of asylum seekers.
We would appreciate an opportunity to discuss with you these and
other concerns related to refugees. Within a few weeks we will call
to request a date for meeting with you, in either Ottawa or Toronto,
to include myself representing KAIROS as well as key representatives
of our member churches.
Thank you for your attention to these concerns,
Paul Hansen,
Chair of the Board of Directors
cc:
Hon. Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public
Safety and Emergency Preparedness,
Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, M.P., Bloc Québécois
Pat Martin, M.P., New Democratic Party
Diane Ablonczy, M.P., Conservative Party
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