Deporting refugees who are now permanent residents for visiting their home country
A new, dangerous step taken by Harper against the Canadian immigrant community
Ali Mokhtari
Deporting refugees who are now permanent residents for having visited their home country
In the last days of February, we heard the news that the Canadian conservative government is doing its best to revoke the status of those permanent residents who entered Canadian soil as refugees years ago but have visited the country from which they fled, tried to renew their original passport, or even went to a third country using that passport. Consequently, these refugees are going to be deported. Please see an article in Toronto Star in this regard here.
Some of the people who have experienced this new conservative policy against immigrants and are the subject of deportation have been living in Canada for years and have families, even in some cases a Canadian spouse, and a successful job or business.
I am going to talk about this issue in the following four sections:
- Legal aspects
According to the regulations, anyone who is outside his homeland and fears being prosecuted for having returned to his homeland can seek asylum. According to the Geneva Convention, the fear of prosecution should have a reasonable basis, and the reason for prosecution should involve one’s race, nationality, membership in a specific social or political group, or specific political view. In some cases, the convention is interpreted more openly. For instance, in Canada, it is recognized that women may be prosecuted and punished just because they are women in certain countries. In any case, what really matters in this regard is the risk menacing the asylum seeker. Any untrue statement or any action or behavior showing that the initial statement was not true can cause one’s refugee status to be revoked, which is called cessation.
According to the current regulations, the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) can decide if someone still needs support and protection, upon a request from the government for cessation, which means the denial of the right to protection. Before 2012 and the approving of the new regulations in this regard by Harper’s conservative administration, it was possible to request cessation, but it rarely occurred, as the board’s decision could not lead to the revocation of the permanent residence of those who had received it after taking asylum, and the government had no motive to request cessation for them, even if IRB granted this request. However, since 2012, the Canada Boarder Services Agency (CBSA) has made the request for cessation one of its five top priorities in intelligence activities. According to the information published by the Canadian Council for Refugees, a non-governmental agency, CBSA specified the issuance of 875 cessation requests as its annual target.
According to the current regulations, except for those who have received Canadian citizenship, anyone who has entered Canadian soil as a refugee can be deported by this agency if he has lost the qualification for protection or if it is shown that his statement was untrue. Having traveled to the home country is considered as contradictory to the applicant’s statement.
۲- The political aspect
This government, being conservative, has done everything in its power — from amateurish tampering with immigration laws to the shutdown of its embassies based on overnight decisions, making efforts to cut off the medical insurance of asylum seekers, and following the anti-immigrant policies of its supporting party since it took office with less than 34 percent of the Canadian vote. Taking serious measures and spending thousands of dollars on deporting refugees who have gone back to their homeland is now among the top priorities of the Harper administration.
According to statistics published by IRB, in 2013, 178 requests were received by this institution in this regard — a significant growth compared to less than 40 requests received in the last few years. In late-March 2014, 148 requests were being processed. Taking the specified target number into account, it seems that the CBSA staff has had a tough year, as they have been under a lot of pressure from their bosses to find immigrants with refugee backgrounds who have traveled to their country. Note that these actions have no benefits for Canadian society.
Jason Kenney, the then immigration minister, justified the change in regulations for deporting refugees and encouraged members of parliament by stating that “many refugees have been seen to have traveled to the same country they fled from after getting their asylum.”, but now, the Harper administration targets the people who have been integrated in Canada for 10 years and have a successful life without getting any help from the Canadian government. It is not actually surprising, given the background of this government, nor that, especially, of Mr. Kenney.
It is not evident why on earth all these human and financial resources are being taken from taxpayers’ pocket to find and deport refugees who have a decent, calm life in Canada, a country which needs three hundred thousand immigrants every year. The question is why people useful to this country should be deported just because they have had a short trip to their home country to see their ill parents, even if this meant taking the risk of being caught in that country.
۳- The importance of this issue for the Iranian community of Canada
A part of the Iranian community consists of refugees who are now permanent residents and have been integrated in Canada, but over the course of years, have traveled to Iran for some reason. Of course, there are some people among them who managed to be granted asylum with made-up stories about their life in Iran, and therefore, they fear being deported more than anyone else. On the other hand, however, we should not look at this issue only from a personal perspective, i.e. whether we are in danger of being deported or not. The conservative government, essentially, does not intend to solve the problems of the immigrants’ community. Besides, these policies are not applied only to Iranians, and actually there are only a few Iranians among those who have been targeted so far, but Harper has shown that he is gradually advancing, and his next policies may include us, even if at the moment we are excluded. Therefore, we should not be happy with his policies, even if we believe that many refugees have taken asylum with made-up stories and they deserved to be treated like that.
As members of the Iranian community, we have to make sure we will take part in the next elections and encourage others to vote for the opponent parties, hoping that we will put an end to the activities of a party which spends the financial and human resources of Canada against the benefits of its people.
۴- Who should be concerned and what do we recommend?
Those who are still permanent residents, have not obtained their citizenship yet, and have traveled to their motherland, can be subject to this law. As said before, in many cases, the information provided in the citizenship application forms is used to initiate this process, so it may be better for this group of people to forget about their citizenship application and postpone it until the time these policies are changed or the Harper term has come to an end. After all, they should not say anything other than the truth on the forms.
It is not evident why on earth all these human and financial resources are being taken from taxpayers’ pocket to find and deport refugees who have a decent, calm life in Canada
The conservative government, essentially, does not intend to solve the problems of the immigrants’ community
Those having Canadian citizenship should not be concerned, as they are not the subject of this new policy
