Is Canada in the midst of a refugee crisis? Experts say that it's important to keep things in perspective

OTTAWA-C is one of the most sensitive debates of Canadian politics.

Thousands of people come to Canada from the United States to claim refugee status at a time when the US President's anti-immigrant protest opposes #WelcomeToCanada's position as a refugee. Liberal prime minister.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen lambasted conservative critics, calling their political message that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau naively urged refugees to obstruct the immigration system by accusing them of "scare" And "not being Canadian". The federal government is blind to the need to cancel a 13-year deal that declares the United States a "safe country" and forces migrants south of the border to avoid official entry points. They want to claim refugee status in Canada.

Last week, as the Progressive Conservatives of Queen's Park joined Trudeau, the Prime Minister appointed Bill Blair, former Toronto Police Chief, to a new ministerial portfolio focused on border security and the reduction of organized crime ". Let's lower the noise and see what happens here.

OK, what's going on?

Over the last two years, media attention has focused on the tens of thousands of people who have entered Canada irregularly, that is to say, who have crossed the border. Critics say the influx is the result of the Safe Third Country Agreement, a 2005 pact with the United States that states that refugees must seek asylum from the country where they arrive in the first place. – but only if they go through official points of entry. "Irregular" migrants are allowed to apply for refugee status when they enter Canada from the United States because they have crossed the border elsewhere.

The NDP contends that Donald Trump's America is not safe for asylum seekers and wants Ottawa to suspend the deal so as not to be encouraged to cross the border to isolated places where some have suffered severe frostbite in winter. .

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Conservatives, on the other hand, are pushing Ottawa to change the agreement so that it applies to the entire border. This would mean that irregular migrants from the United States would not be able to seek asylum in Canada, where the Conservatives say the resources to support them are strained. Last summer, while a wave of immigrants came from Vermont to Quebec, Montreal used its Olympic stadium as a temporary shelter from local resources, and the federal government set up tents to house refugee claimants at the border.

Indeed, much of the discussion around the issue is about pressure on housing systems in places like Montreal and Toronto, as well as the immigration system. As Nicholas Keung of the Star reported last week, employees of the Immigration and Refugee Board – the independent tribunal responsible for judging asylum applications – can not keep pace. According to a CBC report, it takes at least 20 months to process an asylum claim, compared to 16 months last October.

Meanwhile, these asylum seekers need shelter and support. The City of Toronto estimated that it would spend $ 64 million in temporary housing for refugees this year alone. Ottawa has pledged $ 11 million to help the situation.

Quebec, where the vast majority of asylum seekers arrive for the first time, face similar pressures and seek more help from the federal government, while the new Prime Minister's administration of Ontario, Doug Ford, "Mess."

Do these migrants violate the law?

This question was one of the most controversial of all this discussion. Conservatives have described recent asylum seekers as "illegal cross-border", while the government has chosen to call them "irregular" migrants.

Janet Dench, Executive Director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, says that the confusion comes from the fact that it is illegal to cross Canada illegally. But she stresses that Canadian law also recognizes the right to claim refugee status. According to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, newcomers can not be prosecuted for illegal entry into Canada once they have applied for refugee status.

"This makes the act illegal, but also says that it is not illegal at the same time," she said, because legitimate asylum seekers are not treated as offenders.

million. Dench says that this is consistent with the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, which was drafted in the shadow of the Holocaust, when countries like Canada fired Jews who sought refuge in the United States. Nazi Germany.

million. Dench prefers the expression "irregular migrants" or "asylum seekers"

Is it a crisis?

Most refugee advocates say this is not the case. Others – like the federal Conservatives – say it.

Dench says that it's important to look at the numbers. Up until 2018, 10,744 people were intercepted by the RCMP as they were crossing the border outside of an official point of entry. This is roughly in line with the number of "irregular migrants" that Canada experienced in 2017, or 20,593 people.

These figures are certainly higher than those of recent years. But Canada has had much higher refugee demand in previous years: 36,856 in 2008, 33,426 in 2002, and 44,640 in 2001.

In addition, RCMP interceptions increased from 2,560 in April to 1,263 last month. when some advocacy groups were expecting an increase similar to that of last summer. Compared to the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in Europe and places like Bangladesh – where some 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from neighboring Myanmar – the number of asylum seekers in Canada is still relatively low.

"This is certainly not something we can not manage or incorporate," said Aris Daghighian, a Toronto lawyer who sits on the board of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. .

Dench agrees, saying that although there has been an increase over the past two years, "it's really a very small number of people who arrive in the schema of things."

So why everyone?

The number of people fleeing war and persecution has increased in recent years to the highest level since the Second World War, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have invaded Europe, causing political crises in countries like Germany, which have hosted large numbers of refugees. About 700,000 Rohingyas fleeing Burma gathered in camps in neighboring Bangladesh

In North America, this global phenomenon was colored by US President Donald Trump, whose anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies contrast with the Liberals from Trudeau. promising to open Canada to more refugees.

Daghighian says this context is important to understand why there is so much political and media interest in the growing number of refugee claimants in Canada. in the United States, "he said." Because the increase (here) coincided with what's going on under the Trump administration, it may seem more disastrous than it does. " "

At the same time, watching this two year increase in isolation lacks the broader picture, says Dench." The number of asylum seekers entering the Canada has fallen significantly in 2013 and 2014 and has been steadily increasing since then as the number of refugees in the world has increased.

"In reality, the numbers return to more normal numbers for Canada," she said

Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa journalist covering national politics Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga

] Alex Boutilier is an Ottawa reporter who covers national politics Follow him on Twitter: @alexboutilier