Franz André is constantly on the phone responding to calls from asylum seekers on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
“Currently we have people who are really distressed right now,” the refugee advocate who runs Action Committee for People without Status, told Global News.
That’s because a loophole in the border deal between the two countries, which allowed people to seek asylum by using irregular crossings like the one at Roxham Road near Lacolle, Que., was closed Saturday.
Since then, he said, those seeking refuge here via the United States, considered a safe country by Canada, are now cutting through the forest along the border to get into this country.
“Yes,” said André. “Actually I have people that have called me and they are currently in Canada.”
It’s something refugee advocates, opposed to the renegotiated border agreement, had warned about, saying that now people will simply go underground.
“The news is spreading very quickly with Whatsapp,” André noted, “so one person that comes in will quickly tell others how they got in.”
It’s worrisome, he and others point out, because it’s easy for people to get lost in the woods, something that can be potentially dangerous at night in sub-zero temperatures.
There are also fears the migrants will fall prey to traffickers.
On Wednesday, community groups protested against the agreement outside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Montreal office.
“I think that Canada should rescind the third safe country agreement and allow refugee claimants to cross into Canada, and claim asylum at regular border crossings,” insisted Claire Trottier, board chair for Welcome Collective which works with asylum seekers and is part of a network of such groups on both sides of the border.
Under the agreement, if anyone from a third country crosses into Canada from the U.S. to seek asylum, they will be sent back to the United States, unless they meet exemptions.
Those working with migrants argue that the deal is also creating a potential humanitarian problem on the other side of the border.
“This morning on the call we heard stories of at least three or four families from Venezuela, Pakistan, Namibia, who were sent back to the U.S. after they had travelled for months to get to Canada,” said Melissa Claisse, Welcome Collective’s communications coordinator at the protest.
They were found at a gas station with nowhere to go and little money left, she said.
She said other migrants have been found wandering the back roads outside Plattsburgh, N.Y., lost.
Claisse and other advocates fear the worst is still to come.
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