The Canadian Council of Churches, the Canadian Council for Refugees, and Amnesty International, alongside with impacted individuals have taken to court to challenge the designation of the U.S. as a safe third country for refugees. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, refugee seekers who crossed the border to Canada through the US are denied access to refugee protection and are sent back to the US subjecting them to different levels of persecution, including potential detention and deportation due to its flawed and weak refugee protection system. Plaintiffs argue that the Safe Third Party Agreement violates Canadian law, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Learn more.  

 

Safe third country agreement court case

 

 

The Trump Administration has published a proposed new rule that would drastically raise the costs of vital immigration benefits while simultaneously slashing the availability of fee waivers for low-income and vulnerable immigrants. Among the proposals is a new $50 fee to seek asylum. If implemented, the U.S. would become only the fourth nation in the world to charge people who are fleeing for their lives, seeking asylum. The proposed rule would also increase application fees for naturalization, lawful permanent residency, DACA, and several other applications. It would also transfer $207 million to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for enforcement purposes. Learn more/take action. 

  

The International Labor Organization has partnered with UNICEF, IOM, and OECD to produce the landmark report Ending Child Labour, Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in Global Supply Chains. You can find the executive summary here. Shared Hope International, has released its ninth annual Protected Innocence Challenge Report. Published as report cards for each state, the 2019 report reveals continued improvement in the bipartisan nationwide effort to protect juvenile sex trafficking survivors and to hold buyers and traffickers accountable. Learn more, take action.