Late last month, the US and Canada signed a preliminary agreement designed to make each country’s asylum process more secure and to prevent asylum applicants from “shopping” for the best venue for their applications. Each country has long prided itself on its willingness to grant asylum to those who face persecution in their home countries, but following the September 11th terrorist attacks, many in the US began openly criticizing the system, alleging that Canadian treatment of applicants threatened US national security.
Under the new agreement, which must be signed by Secretary of State Colin Powell before it becomes effective, a person who has been in the US and then enters Canada and makes an asylum application will be required to pursue asylum in the US. The same principle will apply to people who are in Canada and make asylum applications in the US. However, one provision of the agreement allows either country to review an asylum application filed in the other country if it is determined to be in the public interest to do so.
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