Quote:
Originally Posted by JM5
Doesn't that seem a bit nonsensical to anyone? Are you really obliged to accept EVERYBODY that wants to come to your country? What if you're a small rich country of 2 million next to a country where a conflict has displaced 8 million? Such a country could choose to withdraw from the treaty or it could change it's laws making it less attractive to asylum seekers. I guess if you're really facing a serious threat of being swamped, there's always a way out.
|
Keep in mind that we are not forced to accept everyone, but our international commitments do preclude from sending someone back to a place where there is a reasonable expectation that they will face persecution.
Although the laws and commitments around the treatment of refugees are not watertight. We could do super extra sketchy shit like
Australia (which may or may not amount to
crimes against humanity, which isn't, y'know, super great). But we don't have any third-world islands which we could illegally ship people off to, lest we renounce sovereignty over PEI or something.
In any case, we wouldn't be able to send people who have already set foot into Canada. Once you're 1mm into Canada, we are bound to hear them out as per international law, and bound to treat everyone fairly as per our own constitution (things like not being able to detain them arbitrarily in a camp, having to allow them access to care and services, etc.).
But, of course, we are lucky enough to not have 8 million people at our doorstep. If we did, we might have different laws. But we don't. Canada has won the cosmic lottery in many a sense, and that is certainly one of them.