A man with an active refugee claim in Canada is being held in a US detention facility after he said he mistakenly crossed the border, Canadian media reported.
The lawyer of Mahin Shahriar, 28, has also claimed that Canada has not helped to free the Bangladeshi national.
The mistake, Shahriar told the Canadian Press, happened after he accepted an invitation from who he believed to be a friend to visit a property near Montreal. He claimed that he now believes the friend was part of a human trafficking operation.
After struggling to find the property, he called his then-friend for directions, which is when he said he stumbled into the United States.
“Then I found myself in the US,” he said. “It was not my intention.”
After crossing the border, Shahriar said he approached an immigration official for support but was quickly detained.
Shahriar’s refugee application initially failed after he applied in 2019, entering the country as a student. It was said that he fell for a fraudulent immigration representative who caused his case to fail.
Despite this, Shahriar was able to bring both his mother and sister to Canada, and his mother was successful in claiming residency.
Shahriar’s lawyer has claimed that the Canada Border Services Agency has prevented Shahriar from returning to the country, not the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Canada's legal obligations
“It’s not that CBSA isn’t accepting him – it’s that they won’t even respond to us at all,” said immigration lawyer Washim Ahmed.
Ahmed claimed his client had not received any communication since July, but stressed that “Quite simply, they have a legal obligation to bring him back.”
Under the safe third country agreement, Ahmed explained that Canada was obligated to receive his client because he was detained by border officials within 14 days of illegally entering the US.
“If you have a family member in Canada that has legal status or is a refugee claimant, which he had, you are entitled to return. And so our position is either to apply the agreement or acknowledge the exception, but the end result is the same: he needs to come back,” Ahmed stressed.
Ahmed has filed with the federal courts to request a formal decision on CBSA and begin a judicial review of Shahriar’s case. He has also petitioned Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree for assistance.
“In the past, we’ve seen people from the US trying to enter Canada and border officials reject them, citing the safe third country agreement. We’re now asking them to apply those same rules of the agreement to this case,” said Ahmed.
“Ice has looked at his case and concluded he would face risks in Bangladesh, so they won’t send him there,” said Ahmed. “And so we want to apply for pre-removal risk assessment because we’re confident Canadian officials will see the dangers he will face if he was ever sent back.”