More Americans Seek Refuge here.
Posted: 2002-12-30 01:25pm
Really long link to article
More Americans seek refuge here
Canada monitors sharp increase New U.S. laws on security cited
DENE MOORE
CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER—The number of Americans making refugee claims in Canada has skyrocketed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to statistics from the Immigration and Refugee Board.
The number of Americans seeking refuge in Canada increased by 135 per cent before the end of October over the entire previous year.
From January to the end of October this year, 191 filed refugee claims citing persecution in the U.S., compared with 81 in 2001.
In 2000, 85 had sought refugee status, already a huge jump from the 40 that sought refuge in 1999.
The increase comes as no surprise to immigration lawyer David Matas.
"I expect that what we're seeing is a reflection of the change in due process in the U.S. as a result of Sept. 11," Matas said from Winnipeg.
Residents of the United States are subject to more arbitrary policing than they were before the terrorist attacks in September, 2001, Matas said.
Rights have eroded more in the U.S. than they have here, he said.
Officials at Citizenship and Immigration Canada are aware of the increase, said spokesperson Nancy Duarte.
"They're aware and they're monitoring," she said.
The department has not had time to evaluate the increase, but believes some of it could be attributed to a number of American-born children of migrants in that country illegally who then come to Canada to claim refugee status, she said.
According to the group Human Rights Watch, more than 1,100 people, mostly Arab or Muslim men, had been detained in the United States within a couple of months of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Neither their names, their locations nor the charges against them were made public.
There were reports that lawyers were prevented from meeting with clients and some hearings were held in secret.
The U.S. Patriot Act of 2001 gave the country's attorney-general sweeping powers to detain non-citizens on national security grounds and hold them in custody indefinitely.
There's been an increase in refugee claims across the board, said Janet Dench, executive director of the Montreal-based Canadian Council for Refugees.
The council doesn't know why the number of claims against the U.S. has increased, she said. But it has heard from claimants who had been living in the U.S. who say they no longer felt safe there after Sept. 11, 2001, because of their country of origin.
More Americans seek refuge here
Canada monitors sharp increase New U.S. laws on security cited
DENE MOORE
CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER—The number of Americans making refugee claims in Canada has skyrocketed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to statistics from the Immigration and Refugee Board.
The number of Americans seeking refuge in Canada increased by 135 per cent before the end of October over the entire previous year.
From January to the end of October this year, 191 filed refugee claims citing persecution in the U.S., compared with 81 in 2001.
In 2000, 85 had sought refugee status, already a huge jump from the 40 that sought refuge in 1999.
The increase comes as no surprise to immigration lawyer David Matas.
"I expect that what we're seeing is a reflection of the change in due process in the U.S. as a result of Sept. 11," Matas said from Winnipeg.
Residents of the United States are subject to more arbitrary policing than they were before the terrorist attacks in September, 2001, Matas said.
Rights have eroded more in the U.S. than they have here, he said.
Officials at Citizenship and Immigration Canada are aware of the increase, said spokesperson Nancy Duarte.
"They're aware and they're monitoring," she said.
The department has not had time to evaluate the increase, but believes some of it could be attributed to a number of American-born children of migrants in that country illegally who then come to Canada to claim refugee status, she said.
According to the group Human Rights Watch, more than 1,100 people, mostly Arab or Muslim men, had been detained in the United States within a couple of months of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Neither their names, their locations nor the charges against them were made public.
There were reports that lawyers were prevented from meeting with clients and some hearings were held in secret.
The U.S. Patriot Act of 2001 gave the country's attorney-general sweeping powers to detain non-citizens on national security grounds and hold them in custody indefinitely.
There's been an increase in refugee claims across the board, said Janet Dench, executive director of the Montreal-based Canadian Council for Refugees.
The council doesn't know why the number of claims against the U.S. has increased, she said. But it has heard from claimants who had been living in the U.S. who say they no longer felt safe there after Sept. 11, 2001, because of their country of origin.
