Province on board with federal strategy to slow flow of asylum seekers

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This article was published 15/09/2017 (2955 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Manitoba government says it’s comfortable with Ottawa’s attempts to stem the flow of asylum seekers crossing from the United States.

“We’re very pleased that that the federal government has been proactive in terms of reaching out to the U.S. communities that have been coming to the border as asylum seekers,” said Ian Wishart, the province’s education minister who is in charge of immigration.

Wishart was speaking Friday at a Toronto meeting between federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen and the provincial ministers who deal with integration and multiculturalism.

They discussed how to shape next year’s immigration quota, which includes how many people are allowed to move to Canada for economic reasons, and how many UN-registered refugees Canada invites to come from countries abroad.

But it was those who arrive in Canada without going through proper channels who took up most of the attention.

Near the Manitoba border town of Emerson, more than 700 people have crossed irregularly into Canada this year, largely Somali and Ghanaian citizens. It’s illegal to enter Canada outside of a border post but, under international law, people who cross illegally and file asylum claims are shielded from prosecution.

On May 31, Premier Brian Pallister called on Ottawa to “Go to the Somali community in Minneapolis and speak about the dangers,” after a Ghanaian woman died of hypothermia in Minnesota on her way to Manitoba.

Conservative MP Ted Falk, who represents the Emerson area, repeated those calls last month, asking Somali-born Hussen to use “his background and cultural perspective” to dissuade people of Somali dissent from crossing into Manitoba.

African diaspora in Minnesota groups told the Free Press last month that thousands of people from Ghana and Liberia are pondering making asylum claims in Canada, as the U.S. tapers off temporary-stay permits and ramps up deportation raids.

A federal task force on “irregular immigration” is working with Ontario and Quebec, sending an MP with Haitian routes to speak to Creole radio in Miami, and a Spanish-speaking MP from Argentina to do similar outreach to Los Angeles. Ottawa says the task force might later include Manitoba, but is focused now on the thousands crossing into eastern Canada.

On Friday, Hussen hinted his government might send more people stateside.

“That work is ongoing; it’s not finished. It includes many, many groups in the United States,” he said, noting consulates are also reaching out to local and social media to put out accurate information and correct false reports.

Both Manitoba and Ottawa must “be ready should anything change” with the number of people heading north, Wishart said.

Meanwhile, Wishart is repeating month-long calls for more funding to help Manitoba integrate the hundreds who have arrived.

“We are pleased that the federal government is engaged on this issue but we need to see action,” he wrote on Twitter. “The job is not finished until Manitoba gets the resources it needs to address the challenges we face.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca