“On Refugee Rights Day, we recognize and celebrate the 1985 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that refugee claimants are entitled to fundamental justice. Today, Canada’s unions urge the federal government to uphold the principles of fundamental justice and fulfill its moral duty and international obligation to protect the well-being of people and families seeking safety, by suspending the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).

“We are deeply concerned by the recent decision between Canada and the United States to expand the Safe Third Country Agreement. Expanding the Agreement to the entire border, including Roxham Road, means that refugees crossing in both directions will be driven underground, forced to take even more dangerous routes, and put their safety and lives at risk. It will inevitably lead to harm and more deaths.

“Under the STCA, refugee claimants must request refuge in the first safe country they arrive in. Although the United States is the only country that has been designated as a safe country according to the Agreement, the reality is that the U.S. does not guarantee safety for refugees.

“We all want to do what is best for our families. Under international law, people have the right to seek refugee protection and to a fair process that determines whether they should receive it. People seeking refuge in Canada deserve to be treated with compassion and must have their claims processed fairly and efficiently, not be turned back to harm.

“Canada’s unions stand in opposition to the Safe Third Country Agreement, and in solidarity with our allies fighting for migrant and refugee justice.

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An estimated 500,000 undocumented people in Canada live under constant fear and threat of abuse and exploitation due to their immigration status. They frequently face racism, discrimination and wage theft, work in dangerous conditions, and are denied basic human and labour rights and benefits such as job protections, health care and education. Their precarious and vulnerable position leaves them unable to speak up against the maltreatment they experience.

“Migrants, international students, refugees and undocumented people are struggling hard to secure their rights. Canada’s unions stand alongside them in strongly advocating for the rights and protections they deserve,” said Bea Bruske, CLC President. “Migrant workers do the critical work of keeping our communities and families safe and cared for. They provide essential services to Canadians across numerous sectors, yet face precarity and unfair working and living conditions and low wages. Urgent change is needed to help support these workers.”

The CLC also continues to urge the government to make meaningful and substantive changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to ensure migrant workers have full human and labour rights, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Migrant workers under the TFWP are subject to work permits that tie them to one employer, which bars them from job mobility and security and makes them highly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by their employers while offering them no recourse.

Most migrants in low-waged work do not have access to permanent residency. To address this issue, the CLC fully supports creating more opportunities for permanent residency for migrants, especially for low-wage migrants, which would provide them with access to the government supports and labour protections they require. “It’s past time for Canada to remove the barriers to full participation and opportunities for migrants, undocumented people, international students and refugees. We urge the federal government to take bold and progressive action to provide full and permanent immigration status for the 1.7 million migrants living in Canada, including undocumented people,” said Bruske.

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“The Canadian government has a moral duty and an international obligation to ensure that we provide a safe haven for all people fleeing imminent danger, disaster and war. The U.S. has failed the safety test for migrants and we cannot send displaced families who meet the refugee criteria back into another climate of fear and persecution,” said CLC President Hassan Yussuff.

A year after issuing a controversial Executive Order barring Syrian refugees and discriminating against travellers from predominantly Muslim countries, American authorities have been instructed to rigorously enforce migrant detention and the separation of children from parents caught crossing into the U.S. The Trump administration announced further plans to deny survivors of domestic violence the ability to claim asylum, even when authorities in their homeland will do nothing to protect them.

“The history of Japanese internment and Canada’s residential school system offer lessons that we cannot afford to ignore. In modern immigration policy, there should be no place for practices that treat thousands of desperate refugees like criminals, tear children from their parents and deport women back to abusive situations. Canada must be unwavering in its commitment to championing human rights and international law,” said Yussuff.

Canada has expressly refused to discriminate in its immigration policy based on faith or ethnicity. That’s why Canada’s unions are calling on the Trudeau government to further distinguish itself by taking immediate steps to publicly challenge America’s new immigration policies and to encourage Canadians to continue to open their hearts and homes to the world’s most vulnerable people.

These steps include:

• Re-examining Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States to ensure that all migrants entering Canada through the U.S. have their claims for refugee protection fairly and properly processed;
• Helping those stranded now, on an emergency basis, by offering asylum to all those who – despite having passed a two-year rigorous screening process – are being denied entry to the U.S.; and
• Launching an intensive public awareness campaign to educate Canadians about Canada’s rigorous border security and the dire and vulnerable circumstances facing refugees in the lands from which they flee.

The Canadian Labour Congress represents 3.3 million unionized workers and has been actively campaigning to raise public awareness around the plight of refugees and to encourage Canadian municipalities to declare themselves “sanctuary cities” for international refugees.

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