OTTAWA -- A new Harvard Law School study accuses Canada of increasingly slamming its doors on asylum seekers, thereby failing to meet its obligations under international and domestic law.
The report bthe Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, obtained by The Canadian Press, paints a grim picture of the plight of those seeking asylum and purports to shed light on why there's been a dramatic increase in human smuggling over the Canada-U.S. border in recent years.
The report "points to an alarming trend," says the clinic director.
For decades, says Deborah Anker, Canada was known for its generosity in refugee protection and served as a model that raised the standards of refugee protection worldwide, especially in the United States.
Now Canada is "deliberately" closing its borders to asylum seekers, the report alleges.
The study delves into the U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), implemented by Canada and the United States in 2004 to exercise more control over their shared border.
The pact requires refugee claimants to seek protection in the first country they reach -- either the U.S. or Canada. The Harvard study finds that the STCA has resulted in a sharp decline in asylum claims made at the Canadian border, while also failing to achieve the goal of protecting the border.
The agreement has also triggered a rise in human smuggling and unlawful border crossings, a situation leaves refugees vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Alexander defended the government's record in opening its doors to genuine refugees, pointing to a United Nations refugee agency report that ranked Canada No. 1 in resettled refugee arrivals per capita in 2012.
