March in Gladstone, Manitoba. Mike Gifford/Flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Refugees are welcome here. We’ve seen and heard this across Canada – chants, signs and tweets sharing this message – including from our own prime minister, Justin Trudeau. We’ve also seen many examples of how civil society actors have formed interconnected networks in response to the plight of refugees around the world and have successfully influenced public policy. While protection gaps remain unaddressed, community voices are getting louder, and the current government has shown they are willing to listen. At a time when refugees are undertaking increasingly desperate and dangerous journeys to reach safety, it is important to look at how ordinary members of society advocate for and implement mechanisms of safe passage, and build on these actions.
The concept of safe passage is concerned with how and through which mechanisms refugees may seek legal protection, and endeavours to provide asylum seekers with meaningful and formal avenues for upholding the rights to which they are entitled. The extent to which states protect and welcome refugees is exercised differently by different states. In Canada, while asylum seekers do not have an unqualified right to remain, they are entitled to seek protection and have their claim assessed. Asylum seekers cannot be automatically returned nor can they be penalised for entering Canada ‘illegally.’
