Canadian politicians and
refugee advocates have urged the government to scrap a US pact that has
spurred asylum seekers to cross the border illegally after a woman
trying to walk into Canada was found dead of possible hypothermia.
US
police said they discovered the woman's body on Friday near Noyes,
Minnesota, which is directly across from the Canadian border town of
Emerson where asylum seekers have been crossing in recent months.
"This
is exactly what we have feared," said New Democrat parliamentarian
Jenny Kwan. "We're forcing people to risk life and limb."
More
than 2,000 asylum seekers have walked into Canada through fields or
across ditches since January because if they present themselves at
formal border crossings they will be turned back under the Canada-US
Safe Third Country Agreement.
The agreement requires refugees to
claim asylum in whichever country they arrive in first, meaning they
cannot land in the United States and then try to claim asylum in Canada
or vice versa. However, anyone who manages to get in the country is
allowed to file an asylum claim.
Most of those border crossers say they left the United States because they fear President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
The marker of the US/Canada border at Roxham Road February 26, 2017, in Champlain, NY. (Photo by AFP)
Opposition
critics pressed the government in Parliament on Wednesday about when it
would suspend the 2004 agreement, which Canada has said it will not
withdraw from.
"We understand deeply the extent to which people
will go to seek protection for them and their families," Canadian
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told the House of Commons. "But we
discourage strongly people crossing our borders irregularly."
A
final autopsy result on the woman, identified as Ghanaian Mavis Otuteye,
57, is pending. Police said she was last seen on May 22 and her body
was discovered on May 26 after she was reported missing a day earlier.
Greg
Janzen, elected leader of a Manitoba border municipality that has seen
many crossers, said his community has responded to three medical calls
from asylum seekers in the past two weeks.
"One person has lost
her life. How many more have to lose their lives? Now it's more
desperate than ever that something has to get changed."
0 comments:
Post a Comment