Rights groups say new law restricting asylum will put thousands ‘at risk of persecution, violence and precarity’.
Montreal, Canada – Human rights groups in Canada have condemned a new federal law that they say “marks a significant attack on refugee and migrant rights” in the country.
In a statement on Friday, more than two dozens organisations warned that Canada’s newly passed Bill C-12 “will put thousands of individuals at risk of persecution, violence and precarity”.
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“Bill C-12 sets the current and future governments on a dangerous path by limiting the ability to seek refugee protection in Canada, enabling the mass cancellation of immigration documents and applications, and facilitating the sharing of personal information within and outside the country,” they said.
The signatories include Amnesty International Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Council for Refugees, among others.
Bill C-12, which became law on Thursday, has fuelled concern from refugee and migrant rights advocates across Canada for months, with several specific elements drawing condemnation.
They include a new rule that will bar asylum seekers from getting a full hearing at an independent tribunal that adjudicates refugee claims – the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) – if they make their applications more than one year after they first entered Canada.
Instead, affected applicants would have access to what’s known as a pre-removal risk assessment – a process that rights groups say grants refugee claimants fewer protections and is “wholly inadequate”.
Bill C-12 also grants the government the power to cancel immigration documents, including permanent or temporary resident visas, and work or study permits, if it deems it in the “public interest” to do so.
“This government is replicating US-like anti-migrant sentiment and policies in Canada,” the rights groups said in Friday’s statement.
The Canadian government has justified the legislation as part of a wider effort to reduce pressure on a strained immigration system and bolster the country’s border security.
“With the passage of Bill C-12, we’re strengthening the practical tools that keep our immigration and asylum systems fair, efficient and working as intended,” Lena Diab, the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, said in a statement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, like his predecessor Justin Trudeau, has moved to drastically cut down temporary visas in Canada, including for international students and foreign workers, after an increase during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canadian attitudes towards migrants and refugees have soured in recent years amid increasingly hostile rhetoric that rights groups say unfairly blames immigrants for an affordable housing crisis and other socioeconomic issues in the country.
The federal immigration department said new asylum eligibility requirements under Bill C-12 “will reduce pressure on the asylum system, protect it against sudden increases in claims, close loopholes and deter people from claiming asylum as a shortcut to regular immigration pathways”.
But the legislation also has drawn international concern, with the United Nations Human Rights Committee warning earlier this week that Bill C-12 “may weaken refugee protection”.
“[Canada] should ensure that all persons seeking international protection have unfettered access to the national territory and to fair and efficient procedures, with all necessary procedural safeguards,” the committee said.
Back in Canada, refugee advocates say they will continue to push back against the legislation.
At a rally in support of refugees and migrants earlier this month in Montreal, Flavia Leiva of the Welcome Collective refugee rights group said the legislative changes are fuelling anxiety and fear.
“[Bill C-12] is scary, it’s really scary. People are coming to see us, stressed, asking: ‘Do you think I’ll be able to stay?’” Leiva told Al Jazeera.
“People are here to work, to get out of [difficult situations],” she said. “We can’t forget that refugees are people who fled extremely difficult situations and who can’t go home.”
