Safe country, no home: quiet band of refugee advocates make life more 'human' for Fort Erie asylum seekers, on eve of 'Safe Third Country' agreement

Catholic New Times, Jan 30, 2005 by Kevin Spurgaitis

However, many NGOs contest the notion that the U.S. is a "safe country" for claimants.

The agreement is the "single, most significant decision" affecting refugees in the last 25 years, according to Mary Jo Leddy, director of Romero House Community for Refugees, which facilitates claimants awaiting their tribunal hearing. Although Canada only accepts a slightly higher percentage of refugees than the U.S., 'it is less likely to jail asylum seekers. In contrast, the U.S.'s "heavy-handed" detention program sees mostly Arabs and Colombians--without proper identification--held without cause or trial for several months. The American Congress is also in the process of passing amendments to the Patriot Act, which would allow the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the Convention against Torture.

Fr. Jack Costello, director of the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto says: "The border is a way of controlling and reducing the number of people who want to come into Canada. Canada, therefore, cannot claim we are equally open and welcoming, when we've just put in place legislation that will reduce the inflow of people by an average of 11,000 each year."

Fr. Costello is also the co-ordinator of the Jesuit Refugee Service ORS) in English-speaking Canada, and a board member and researcher for the Canadian Council of Refugees. Although the government claims it is curbing "asylum shopping," he argues claimants want to come to a place where they will be "best received," where they'll have greater assurances of getting on their feet.

"(Refugee claimants) are not buying a product, they are searching for security for one's life and one's family," Fr. Costello says.

Charging that the Safe Third Country will likely weaken the border, opponents maintain refugees will just exit the United States "irregularly." It's speculated that people smuggling rings will mushroom, exposing asylum seekers to physical danger and economic exploitation. "Oh, they will come," Anzovino says assuredly. "When people want to come, they will always find a way."

Getting into Canada has been described as a marathon. Refugees cross into Fort Erie hoping to be handed status as if it was a glass of water. On the evening of Dec. 23, 17 Tibetan refugees were the last to board the bus bound for the U.S.--and uncertainty, according to Anzovino. "Save me, save me" they cried in staccato outbursts. "I don't want to go back to America." When immigration officials warned claimants to pick up their belongings--plastic bags stuffed with clothing--the Tibetans knelt on the floor, folded their hands and respectfully bowed their heads. Taken aback by their woeful pleas, one Peace Bridge Authority officer left the room fighting back tears. Anzovino recalls. "It was so difficult that night because we weren't able to do anything directly for them. They are just beautiful, beautiful people."

About those fleeting, hope-filled hours, she writes: "It was painful for the refugees ... Waiting is never easy, but what better place to be than with the poor and vulnerable as they await the decision for their very life ... It's in these very moments, we are called to see God everywhere and especially in the places we would not expect to find glory and grace. It is the call to see God in the face of that 80-year-old Eritrean woman."