Are asylum seekers illegally crossing the border on foot into Canada jumping the queue ahead of other refugees?
Two Winnipeg immigration lawyers following the story about the increasing number asylum seekers coming to Manitoba have different opinions on the subject.
‘THERE’S A LIMIT’: KEN ZAIFMAN
Winnipeg immigration lawyer Ken Zaifman said Canada does have a cap on refugees – the country can only financially support so many refugees.
‘This is an irregular unplanned flow of refugee claimants,” Zaifman said.
“Right now if the numbers dramatically increase where are we going to house them, how are they going to be supported,” he said.
Zaifman believes the burden is going to fall on municipalities, or non-governmental organizations.
“It’s not jumping the queue, it’s a different way to make, seek admission to Canada,” Zaifman said.
He said Canada has two systems, a refugee determination process in Canada and a refugee selection process outside of Canada.
“The government has to decide, at the end of the day, there’s a limited number of refugees that Canada can absorb and take and fund. If these people who self-select themselves, I think that will have an impact on the total number of refugees we take outside of Canada. So there’s a limit, and we have to determine as a country what that limit is,” Zaifman added.
‘QUEUE JUMPING’ IS A MYTH: BASHIR KHAN
Winnipeg immigration lawyer Bashir Khan has a different view, he believes ‘queue jumping’ is a myth.
“It’s a fabric of their imagination,” said Khan who represents 37 of the people who illegally crossed the border on foot in the past few months.
"Refugee law makes no distinction between those who are coming to Canada, standing on Canadian soil, and those who make a refugee claim in a refugee camp somewhere else. There is no queue,” said Khan.
Khan said the system for the people waiting in refugee camps, and people crossing the border into Canada are two separate systems.
“Both systems run parallel, there isn’t a line-up for one or the other,” he said.
Khan said the main difference between people in refugee camps, and the people crossing the border on foot, is access to money.
“At the end of the day money buys access to justice. Let’s recognize the class difference that exist between those who have money, or can borrow money, or able to get their hands on money,” he said.
“If you have access to some sort of money, and you have the stamina and you are willing to travel the long road from Brazil up this way, or fly to the U.S because you have a visa to the U.S., and then you come to Canada that’s because you have money to be able to get here to seek refugee protection.”
He said the term 'queue jumping' originates in Australia, because at one time the government selected a certain number of refugees from a camp based on a quota. That quota would get reduced depending on the number on-shore asylum claims.
Khan said Canada does not have a cap accepting the number of people crossing the border, or a policy in place like the one described in Australia.
