Safe Country Provisions in Canada and in the European Union: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

This article analyzes the international legal framework that surrounds the issue of safe third country (STC) in the European Union and in Canada. The argument put forward is that Canada is not immune to the developments in the European Union and that Canada's immigration policies towards refugees have changed accordingly. My position is that the Canadian model respects the legal constraints which govern the acceptability of mechanisms to apportion responsibility to examine a claim to refugee status, in particular the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By testing the international legal viability of both the European and the Canadian system of safe third country against Articles 31 and 33 of the Geneva Convention and Executive Committee Conclusion No. 58 and Conclusion No. 15, and by addressing the draft Memorandum of Understanding between Canada and the United States and comparing it with some of the readmission agreements between the European Union and some third states, the article concludes that the Canadian STC model is preferable to that in Europe from both a legal and a humane point of view.