Desperate immigrants risk perilous winter trek to Canada
https://gistzzone.blogspot.com/2017/02/desperate-immigrants-risk-perilous.html
TORONTO (AP) — After he was denied
asylum in the U.S., Seidu Mohammed's fear of being deported to his
native Ghana, where he believes he'd be killed or jailed, became so
great that he set out in brutal winter conditions to cross illegally
into Canada.
Mohammed and
his friend lost all their fingers to frostbite after a 10-hour trek
across fields of waist-high snow in sub-zero temperatures. Despite their
injuries, the two men say they now feel safe. They're part of a small
but growing number of immigrants risking the northern border crossing.
"God blessed Canada with good people," said Mohammed, 24. "I see the difference between Canada and the United States."
In
Manitoba, which borders Minnesota and North Dakota, groups that
specialize in helping refugees say the pace of arrivals has quickened
since Donald Trump became president and banned travel from seven
majority-Muslim countries. Refugees who spoke with The Associated Press
cited Trump's order and anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric as the main
reasons for going north.
Rita
Chahal, executive director of Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council,
said her group normally sees 50 to 60 refugees from the U.S. each year.
But The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that more than 40 have been
picked up at the border near Emerson, Manitoba, in just the last two
weekends.
Chahal said most are
natives of Somalia, which was in Trump's travel ban, but also from
Ghana, Djibouti, Nigeria and Burundi. They are making the trip at a
dangerous time.
"This is one of
the coldest seasons in the coldest parts of our country," said Ghezae
Hagos, a counselor at Welcome Place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who deals
with refugees upon arrival. He said that on Feb. 4, five Somalis said
they walked for five hours in the fields in minus-30 Celsius (minus-22
F) weather.
The increase at the
Manitoba crossing is likely related to Minnesota's status as the
leading U.S. landing spot for Somali immigrants.
Marc
Prokosch, an immigration attorney in Minneapolis, said it's been
growing more difficult for Somalis to get asylum in recent years, mostly
because they lack documents to prove their identity.
There
is also fear of deportation. U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement
said 90 Somalis were deported from across the U.S. on Jan. 25.
Bashir
Yussuf, a Somali refugee who spent three years in San Diego and the
last two months in Minneapolis, crossed the border Feb. 5 with two
others. Yussuf, 28, was ordered deported in 2015. He had remained in the
U.S. under monitoring, hoping to get a favorable ruling to stay.
"But when Trump took over, eventually my hope died," he said.
He called the trip "the hardest thing I've ever done," describing a three-hour journey over ice and snow.
"I even jumped two rivers over snow. You go down deep," he said. "My life was in danger in many ways."
While
the number of Illegal crossings to Canada is dwarfed by the hundreds of
thousands from Mexico on the southern border, the numbers are
increasing.
In Quebec, the number has
tripled in one year to 1,280 in the current fiscal year, which runs
through March. Illegal crossings to British Columbia doubled to 652 last
year. In Manitoba, the RCMP intercepted 68 people three years ago but
430 this fiscal year.
Near
Emerson — about 80 miles north of Grand Forks, North Dakota, on
Interstate 29 — officials on the U.S. side have done enough rescues in
the past month that Aaron Heitke sees it as a humanitarian issue.
Heitke,
the Border Patrol's Grand Forks sector commander, said he's contacted
consulates for some African countries asking them to spread information
about the hazards of a Minnesota winter.
"Family
groups with small children that, if someone hadn't gone out and picked
them up, they'd have frozen to death," Heitke said.
Those
fleeing the U.S. avoid border posts because of an agreement — called
Safe Third Country — that requires migrants to request refugee
protection in the first safe country they arrive in. That means migrants
arriving at a Canadian border post are rejected and told to apply in
the U.S.