Canada court guidelines US 'unsafe' for asylum seekers
Canada's federal courtroom has ruled an asylum agreement the united states has with the united states is invalid because America violates the human rights of refugees.
The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), set up since 2004, requires refugee claimants to request protection in the first safe country they reach.
But on Wednesday, a judge declared the offer unconstitutional as a result of chance that the united states will imprison the migrants.
The ruling marks a significant victory for Canadian immigration activists.
Lawyers for refugees who had been turned away in the Canadian border had challenged the agreement, arguing that the US didn't qualify as "safe and sound" for asylum seekers.
Nedira Jemal Mustefa, among the refugees forced to remain in america, told the court her amount of time in US solitary confinement was "a terrifying, isolating and psychologically traumatic knowledge," in line with the court ruling.
"We're all too familiar with the treatment that the united states metes out to asylum seekers," Maureen Silcoff, president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, advised Reuters news agency.
The 5,525 mile (8,891 km) US-Canada border is the longest border between two countries on earth.
The Safe Third Region Agreement is a policy implemented to raised manage refugee claims and avoid so-called "asylum shopping" between countries.
But it can be driving asylum seekers to create what the Canadian government calls "irregular" crossings in order to avoid being turned back at official border details.
Since 2017, when President Donald Trump took office promising a crackdown on immigration, some 58,000 people have crossed into Canada from the united states in that fashion to create subsequent refugee claims.
Canada have been processing their claims before coronavirus pandemic, when the Canadian federal government said they might be turned back.
There were calls in Canada to suspend or renegotiate the agreement with the united states.
