Canadian PM Justin Trudeau forced to backtrack on open invitation to refugees

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sought to temper the notion that Canada is a guaranteed safe haven for those fleeing the threat of deportation in the United States, as his government faces criticism that its refugee-friendly messaging has given “false hope” to the thousands of asylum seekers streaming into Canada from the US.

Since the start of the year, more than 11,300 people have crossed into Canada by foot from the US. The pace has picked up in recent weeks, with as many as 250 people a day – many of them driven by fears of Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants – entering the country at remote, unguarded locations. Doing so allows them to skirt a long-standing pact that bars most refugee claimants in the US from applying for asylum in Canada.

As Canadians officials scramble to process and house the new arrivals – turning Montreal’s Olympic stadium into a temporary welcome centre, deploying the military to set up a 500-person camp at the border and setting up a temporary tent city in a small Ontario city – Trudeau has set out to tone down the welcoming image his government has cultivated since taking power.

“For someone to successfully seek asylum it’s not about economic migration,” Trudeau told reporters this week. “It’s about vulnerability, exposure to torture or death, or being stateless people. If they are seeking asylum we’ll evaluate them on the basis of what it is to be a refugee or asylum seeker.”

While he highlighted that Canada remains an open and welcoming society, his message to those crossing into Canada at unmarked locations along the border was pointed: “You will not be at an advantage if you choose to enter Canada irregularly. You must follow the rules and there are many.”

The prime minister has taken heat from opposition politicians who say his welcoming messages may have misled some into believing that Canada accept all migrants with open arms.

“Our system now is in shambles, and I think a lot of this has to do with the messaging – the inconsistent messaging – that has been coming out of Justin Trudeau’s personal communication shop,” said MP Michelle Rempel, the Conservative immigration critic.