The Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care is putting out a call to action out of our deep concern for the safety of migrants and refugees who may soon flee the USA to Canada. President-elect Donald Trump has ramped up his deportation plans and rhetoric, threatening millions of so-called “illegal migrants” with “mass deportation” starting the day he takes office. 

Our refugee team was there from 2016 to 2019 when President Trump did the same. If history is any indication, the US-Canadian border is set to get very busy again. Some 60,000 arrived in Canada in 2018. They fled, making refugee claims at regular border crossing points (e.g. Roxham Road) or by paying smugglers and making dangerous irregular “underground” crossings.

Our refugee and migrant medical teams treated the severe frostbite, cold exposure and mental trauma in children and parents trying to cross dangerous frozen fields after being forced out of smugglers’ trucks. Being deported back to their own country, to gangs, persecution, war, torture, human trafficking, and famine are not risks they can take. The potential exists for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable refugees to soon start heading north to Canada. 

This time, however, they will find a harsher Canadian migration “system.” The welcome tweets from our Prime Minister have been replaced by blame. Now closed, the safety of Roxham Road is gone. A new safe third-country agreement between Canada and the Biden administration means many will be denied entry and the right to an asylum claim. 

Dangerous underground crossings will almost certainly increase this winter. We hope we are wrong and that none of this happens, but Canada must be ready to provide the required humanitarian responses and grassroots interventions.

Our call to action highlights the different response areas we must prepare and mobilize around to ensure the safety of migrants and refugees who are likely to flee to Canada’s borders. 

People: Physicians, medical/medic teams, nurses, lawyers, and community agencies, particularly in border regions; all need to be responders, organized, working together, and ready to assist. 

Shelter: warming centres surveillance for crossings need to be planned.

Communications: information to migrants explaining how to find and reach out for help and their legal rights. 

Supplies: Warm clothing, food, water, guidance, and transport to safety.

Governance: Our politicians and border services must be part of a humane response to support responders and their efforts. 

We were caught off guard in 2018. We need to avoid that this time; we need to be prepared.

 

The Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Healthcare 
4158 Sheppard Ave East Scarborough Ontario. MIS 1T3.
www.healthequity.ca  
Office Phone +1 (647) 267 2176
Fax +1 (647) 493 3121