Canada is set to welcome 11,000 migrants from Colombia, Haiti and Venezuela this fall, immigration minister Marc Miller said.
In March of this year, Canada had promised it would welcome 15,000 migrants from the western hemisphere over the course of the year. On Tuesday, Miller said Canada was creating a “new humanitarian permanent residence pathway” for 11,000 migrants from three countries.
“Starting this fall, Colombian, Haitian and Venezuelan foreign nationals located in Central or South America or the Caribbean who have extended family connections in Canada will be eligible to apply for this new pathway,” Miller said in a statement.
The principal applicant, regardless of age, must be a child, grandchild, spouse, common-law partner, parent, grandparent or sibling of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. New permanent residents under this program will be offered “enhanced pre-arrival services,” which include an employment skills assessment and a referral to a settlement provider organization in their intended community.
“Global displacement of people in search of safety is at an all-time high. The Americas are seeing unprecedented numbers of migrants seeking safe haven and new opportunities, in often dangerous situations such as crossing the Darien Gap. Working closely with the US, we expect to see these measures help curb irregular migration and promote safe migration as an alternative to the often dangerous irregular routes in the Americas,” Miller said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada’s intention to welcome 15,000 migrants from the Americas on March 23, two days before the Safe Third Country Agreement was extended to apply to the entire U.S.-Canada border.
The agreement, which first came into effect in 2004 and recognizes Canada and the U.S. as safe places for migrants to seek protection, recently came under scrutiny.
Under the agreement, migrants must seek asylum in the first of the two countries they land in, making it illegal to cross the border and seek asylum in the other country. In June of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada said the agreement was constitutional and does not violate Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom — the right to life, liberty and security of a person.
Opponents of the treaty asked the top court to declare that the legislation underpinning the pact violates the right to life, liberty and security of the person, saying the U.S. is not actually safe for many asylum seekers.
The Canadian government argued to Supreme Court justices that returnees have access to fair asylum and detention processes south of the border.
The court recognized the risk that refugees face, but said there were safety valves present in the legislation.
Soon after the Supreme Court’s verdict, Gauri Sreenivasan, co–executive director at the Canadian Council for Refugees, called on the federal government to withdraw from the agreement anyway.
“The U.S. is not a safe country for refugees. And our organizations have brought overwhelming evidence that sending people who are seeking safety here back to the U.S. causes serious violation of rights. Rights that are protected both under the Canadian Charter (of Rights and Freedoms) and international law.”
Last year, Canada received 20,891 refugee claims from people who crossed the border outside of an official border crossing, federal data shows.
In the first three months of 2023, before the agreement was extended to apply to the entire border, Canada received 14,192 refugee claims from irregular border crossers.
This year’s expansion of the agreement removed unofficial crossings such as Roxham Road in Quebec as viable options for potential asylum seekers to get to Canada.
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