Urgent Need to Defend the Rights of Migrants and Refugees
Montreal Protest Against Canada-U.S. Decision to Further Block "Irregular Migration"
On March 29, a protest was held in Montreal outside the constituency office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, against the closure of the Roxham Road border crossing between Quebec and New York State. Besides Solidarity Across Borders, which organized the action, representatives from community and other organizations representing students concerned about the natural and social environment, women, those working in health care and others spoke.
The
closure of Roxham Road is a direct outcome of U.S. President Joe
Biden's visit to Canada. On March 24, Canada and the U.S.
"announced an
Additional Protocol that expands the Safe Third Country
Agreement
[STCA] and applies across the entire land border, including
internal
waterways." Under the STCA, Canada and the U.S. have declared
each
other safe for refugees
and block those seeking asylum at the U.S.-Canada border from
doing so.
Although the deal had been prepared a year ago asylum seekers themselves were given only a few hours notice by the federal government before it closed the border when the extension of the STCA went into effect on midnight March 25.
Through the STCA, in place since 2004, Canada turns back refugees to the U.S. where they face arbitrary detention, expedited removal without having their cases heard, and criminal prosecution for crossing into the U.S. This is in violation of Canada's international commitments towards asylum seekers.
Participants in the March 29 rally called for an end to the STCA. They pointed to the cruelty and hypocrisy of the Trudeau Liberal government, with all its talk about preparing a massive regularization program for those without status, that had been working in secret with the U.S. for a year to close the irregular border crossing, adding that there could no longer be any illusions with regard to any assistance from the federal government with regard to those traveling through the Americas in search of security.
They also condemned the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government which at the beginning of the pandemic, spoke of those who had traveled through Roxham Road as essential workers and guardian angels and now, with all its rhetoric, treats those entering irregularly as a threat to Quebec's so-called national cohesion, etc.
Asylum
seekers themselves, they said, including entire families with
young
children, who had often traveled through numerous countries,
facing all
manner of peril and trauma until they arrived at Roxham Road,
where
federal installations had been set up that ensured their safety
when
crossing,
were given merely a few hours notice before the border was shut
tight
in their faces in the early morning of March 25.
If caught, other than for a few exceptions such as unaccompanied children and those with family members living in Canada, asylum seekers must now prove they have been in Canada for 14 days, otherwise they will be returned to the U.S.
Those who spoke also pointed to the deaths of Fritznel Richard, a Haitian national who, for lack of a work permit, had tried re-entering the U.S. and Mexican national Jose Leos Cervantes, a Mexican national who had been struggling to make a living for his family in Toronto who died near the U.S. border.
Notably, the governments of the two countries claim in their announcement to broaden the STCA that they "share a strong interest in safe, fair and orderly migration, refugee protection, and border security. This includes a commitment to addressing the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement, while respecting the rights of those fleeing persecution." Are the U.S. and Canada taking measures to end their foreign interventions, including war and aggression, that are the root cause of the displacement of millions of people worldwide? In fact, Biden's visit to Canada was an opportunity for the two countries to plan further infamies against Haiti and its people which will only exacerbate the crises they face.
The
unity in action of all groups working in defence of the rights
of all,
speakers said, must be strengthened and the entire working class
called
upon to take up as theirs the struggle in defence of the rights
of all,
as full-fledged human beings, with all the rights that this
entails.
The urgent need to oppose the criminalization of migration and the need for safe means to migrate from one country to another is underscored by the death of at least eight people from two families on March 30, attempting to make an "irregular crosssing" from Canada to the U.S. across the St. Lawrence through Akwesasne Mohawk territory.
A petition campaign is underway to end the STCA.The petition can be read and signed here. TML calls on everyone to go all out through the petition and other means to bring an end to the STCA and all of Canada's violations of the rights of immigrants and refugees, that cause so much injustice and tragedy.
(Photo: TML, Solidarité sans frontière)
This article was published in
Volume 53
Number 3 - March 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530039.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca