New Canada-U.S. immigration deal puts ‘people in danger’ says former asylum seeker

Local Journalism Initiative
Tue, April 4, 2023 

Seidu Mohammed knows the lengths that asylum seekers will often go to when trying to cross the border into Canada and he worries that a newly signed agreement between the U.S. and Canada will cause even more desperation and harm to those trying to get into this country.

“I am speaking from experience, I almost froze to death, I lost my fingers, and I know what this is going to do for people trying to come here to seek safety, and it’s going to make it even harder on people,” Mohammed said on Monday in Emerson near the Canada-U.S. border.

“It’s going to put a lot of people in danger and it’s going to put a lot of refugees at risk because the United States is not a safe place for refugees.”

On Monday, 30-year-old Mohammed joined NDP Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship MP Jenny Kwan, and Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan at a media conference in Emerson, where they spoke out against a new agreement reached between Canada and the U.S. on March 29 that will tighten rules around refugees seeking asylum into Canada.

The agreement now sees the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) applied to the entire Canada-U.S. land border. It will see migrants coming from the U.S. who are looking to make asylum claims at unofficial points of entry turned back by border agents in Canada, and will now stipulate that asylum seekers must make their claims in the first safe country they reach.

The agreement also allows immigration officers to bring people back to the border to turn them over to authorities if they are found within 14 days of crossing the border illegally.

In 2016, Mohammed was one of two men who journeyed hundreds of kilometres on foot in the dead of winter to get to Manitoba near the community of Emerson to seek asylum.

But the journey cost Mohammed all of his fingers due to frostbite, as he says he was outside for about seven hours in early January of 2016 when temperatures were as low as minus-28C.

Mohammed is originally from Ghana, but he fled the country out of fear for his safety because of his sexuality, as Ghana law prohibits same-sex sexual activity under their Criminal Code.

He originally applied for asylum in the U.S. after leaving Ghana, but was denied asylum there, which led him to travel on foot to seek asylum in Canada.

He has since become a Canadian citizen, but said if the new agreement had been in place when he got to Canada in 2016, he would have been returned to the U.S., and believes he would have been deported back to his home country, where his life would be in danger.

“If this law had been in effect then I would not be standing here in Canada today, and I don’t think I would even be alive,” he said.

During Monday’s media conference, Kwan spoke about the damage she thinks will be done to asylum seekers through the new agreement.

“Ask yourself whether that level of security is what Canadians want, and simply to protect us from those who are coming to Canada because they are desperate and in need of protection,” Kwan said.

“This solution to crossing in communities like here in Emerson is not expanding the STCA agreement, the solution is to end it, because expansion means that already desperate people will be pushed further underground into unsafe pathways.”

Emerson-Franklin Reeve Dave Carlson said on Monday he is hopeful that the new agreement will make border crossings safer for those trying to get into Canada, and for emergency workers who he said are often called on to help refugees when they are in danger.

“This was a really big issue back in 2017-18 in Emerson before COVID hit, and there were a lot of emergency services people responding to a lot of calls of people in distress and things of that nature because of how remote this area can be, and how cold it can get,” Carlson said.

“It is just so dangerous in the winter when people are outside in a forest or a field, because of how treacherous that can be.”

Carlson said he hopes the new agreement will help, but added he also hopes it does not bring any further pain or suffering to those trying to get to Canada.

“We need some time to see how this will play out and we understand that desperation, but my hope is that this does what it’s intended to do, and discourages any sort of unsafe crossing, because we want people to be safe, and we have seen what can happen when these situations go wrong.”

The federal government didn't respond to a request for comment from the Winnipeg Sun on Monday.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun