Visitors to Canada with valid visas claim they are being pressured to seek asylum upon arriving — or leave

“My brother comes from a wealthy family in India. He faces no danger in India,” said his sister Priyanshu Singh, 22, adding that their father owns several shoe factories and multiple properties in India.

“Why canvass him to sign a refugee claim and want him to be a refugee in this country?” 

That’s a question also asked by some immigration lawyers and consultants, who say they have been contacted by visitors with valid visas who were denied entry and offered the option to seek asylum at Toronto and Montreal airports despite having no intention to do so.

The number of new refugee claimants in Canada has skyrocketed since the border reopened after the pandemic, from 24,127 in 2021 to 60,158 in 2022 and 137,947 in 2023. In the first six months of this year, already 92,135 claims were made.

Since Canada and the U.S. expanded a bilateral ban last year preventing irregular migrants at land border from seeking asylum, there has been a surge of refugee claimants arriving at airports across the country: from 17,165 in 2022 to 41,355 last year. Between January and June, it reached 27,840.

In recent months, some people travelling to Canada by air have taken their complaints to social media, claiming they were held and harassed by Canadian border agents over the genuineness of their visit, being asked to leave the country or make a refugee claim in order to enter Canada.

Mississauga immigration consultant Sheetal Jhuti said she had taken those online complaints with some skepticism until a couple of clients walked into her office in July making similar allegations, and seeking her help.

“I had not heard of somebody not asking for a refugee claim and then being told, ‘Well, make the claim. This is what it is. You can do that and submit the forms,’” she recalled. “I hadn’t heard that happening (before).” 

Jhuti said the two men did not know each other and arrived on different flights, in Toronto and Montreal. Both had valid visas but ended up declaring asylum to avoid being sent back to India immediately. They told her they were not asked any question about their trips but were offered the option straight away.

“We are aware of these allegations and want to make it clear that the Canada Border Services Agency does not direct or counsel travellers to make refugee claims,” said Luke Reimer, a spokesperson for the agency.

“Having obtained a temporary resident visa (visitor visa) or having been previously authorized to enter Canada does not guarantee the right to enter Canada.”

Immigration data showed 27,020 people sought asylum at the two airports between January and June. More than a third (9,625) were from India, followed by Nigeria (2,585), Bangladesh (2,470), Mexico (2,245) and Ghana (1,905).

As of the beginning of this August, the Canada Border Services Agency said 1,603 foreign nationals withdrew their requests to enter Canada and left voluntarily between the two airports, while 294 departed after being issued a removal order.

A foreign national can make a claim at an air or land port of entry, or at an immigration office in Canada after entering the country.

Jhuti said many visitors do intend to seek opportunities to stay in Canada permanently and the desire seems to have intensified after the federal government introduced a special policy in August 2020 to allow visitors to apply for work permits from within Canada. The initiative expires in February 2025.

“Their intent was never to file refugee claims,” she pointed out. “Their intent was to find work and probably transition to a work permit.”

Jhuti said the two men who consulted her will need to prove they have legitimate fear if they return to India. Even if they withdraw their claim and manage to get a job offer, they must first leave Canada and the chances for them to be readmitted are close to zero. 

“The only option for them is to go through this entire (refugee) process needlessly,” Jhuti said.

The Immigration and Refugee Board is already struggling with a growing backlog and processing time, which means if people make unfounded asylum claims, there’s potential for them to stay and work in the country longer than if on a visitor visa.

Vancouver immigration lawyer Will Tao said he has seen an increase in cases in the past year where visitors are asked to withdraw their entry requests or given a shorter stay than their visas allowed.

“I have heard from several sources that one of the driving forces behind this is that CBSA has lost trust in some of the decisions made by immigration because they believe these (decisions) are being automated without officers properly vetting it.”

Toronto immigration lawyer Teklemichael Sahlemariam said legitimate visitors are sometimes hassled by border agents and pushed to make a claim at the airport. Many feel they have already spent a fortune on their trips and don’t want to leave in vain. 

He said border officials often ask visitors about their plans and look for inconsistencies in the information they provide during inspections and in their visa applications. The visitors may not come to seek asylum, he said, but some officials would question their intent and insist they’re here to stay.

“That’s the truth they expect to hear from you,” said Sahlemariam, whose clients are mostly from Ethiopia and Eritrea. “People make refugee claims at the airport and I don’t know if it is out of their willingness, or it is triggered by the suspicions of the officers who kind of push them (to).”

Last October, he said a banker from Ethiopia contacted him after he was denied entry because he changed his accommodation plan from staying in a hotel to staying with a bishop of a church in Niagara Falls, who learned of his visit and offered an invite later.    

“They said they didn’t believe him, and he had to stay in the detention room,” Sahlemariam recalled. “He said to them, ‘You can keep my passport. I’m going to come back in the morning.’ He went to the church and stayed there overnight. He flew back home the next day.”

Meanwhile, Singh has filed a complaint with the border agency about the alleged abusive and belligerent behaviour of the officer at the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, claiming he was “coerced” into filing the refugee claim.

In his statutory declaration, he said he had his passport “snatched” from him and was asked by the officer why his mother was not travelling with him as stated in the initial plan submitted to his visa application. He replied that she was sick and unable to travel.

The officer, he said, accused him of lying and even threatened to put him in a cell when he tried to use the washroom, according to the complaint.

“The interpreter suggested I sign a refugee application to stay in Canada. I did not fully understand what this document entailed, but after so many hours of rude and frightening treatment, I agreed,” Singh said in his statement.

“I had no other choice but to sign the documents otherwise they were going to put me on plane back to India.”

In an interview with the Star, his sister said she and her fiancé drove to Montreal after a frightened Singh called her from the airport. She was on the phone with him on and off, but, she said, the officer refused to speak to her.

She found out her brother had made a refugee claim only when he came out of the customs area, 12 hours after his flight first landed.

“The interpreter kept saying, ‘Just sign it,’” recalled the sister of the overheard conversation from her phone. “My brother was asking, ‘Will I get my passport back? Will I be able to go see my sister? Will I be able to go back to my country?’ I was not aware of what he was given to sign.”

John Edwards, counsel for the siblings, said the border agency did issue an inadmissibility report against his client, alleging that he was trying to seek to stay in Canada permanently. 

“Whatever happened, something has failed here,” Edwards said.

This week, the border agency finished its internal investigation and concluded that Singh’s allegations are not supported, and the officer’s conduct did not go against the organization’s values.

“Officers do not force foreign nationals to submit an application for asylum,” wrote CBSA interim superintendent Mario Martella, adding that Singh can withdraw his asylum claim if it was filed “by mistake.”