Canada has signed international agreements with the United Nations (UN) since 1951 that oblige it to receive, evaluate, and analyze the case of a person who comes to this country to request refuge, before telling them that they are not accepted or giving them an order to leave.
In Canadian immigration law, this right is called Procedural Fairness and the Principle of non-refoulement.
Who is eligible?
People who qualify for refugee status in Canada are those whose lives are in danger in their home country. They are people who have been persecuted or who have a well-founded fear because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because they are members of a particular social group. These individuals must prove to the Canadian government that their lives are not safe anywhere in their home country, and that their country’s government cannot protect them.
Similarly, persons who are at risk of being tortured, or of receiving cruel and unusual treatment or punishment in their country of origin, may be considered protected persons in Canada.
High number of refugee applications in 2024
Currently, since January 2024, leaders of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Premier of Quebec have expressed their disagreement with the high number of refugee claimants in Canada, especially in Quebec. The mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, has also said that the city needs more financial support from the federal government to assist the high number of refugees coming to this part of Canada, especially in terms of housing.
Consequently, on January 31, 2024, the federal government agreed to offer $362 million to cities and provinces with the most refugee application numbers to deal with this situation.
Causes and Consequences
Canada’s conservative party is suggesting re-implementing visa applications for Mexican citizens. They announced that many of the current refugee applications are from citizens of that country, and that many of these applications are not approved because the applicant does not qualify for refuge protection, unfortunately. They added that this situation only increases the waiting list for people who do qualify for the constitutional right of refugee protection.
The decision to implement the visa application for Mexican citizens is not official, they are just comments and discussions by political representatives. Today, what is legal is the decision made by the federal government in 2016 under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where the visa application requirement is waived for Mexican citizens to expedite and promote trade agreements between Mexico and Canada.
Finally, it is important to note that whether or not the visa is imposed again on Mexican citizens, this decision is not going to have much influence on the improvement of the crisis that currently exists in Canada with respect to the slowness of the migratory processes, much less in the housing crisis. There are deeper problems in the different Canadian systems and institutions that need to be carefully evaluated in order to really achieve the long-awaited solutions.