Canada Denies Refugee Status to African-American Man Who Fears US Police
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Kyle Canty will have to pack his bags and return to the United States after Canadian officials rejected his asylum application, CBC News reports.
The African-American citizen entered Canada back in September. He told border officials in Vancouver that he was coming for a visit but later filed for refugee status.
Canty, pointing to Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., said he fears that the police in America would kill him because he’s black. He told Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board that black people in America are being “exterminated at an alarming rate.”
The New York native submitted video evidence of his interaction with police, which included an arrest for trespassing at an Oregon bus station where he was using free Wi-Fi for two hours. Canty, 30, also admitted to several other minor charges such as jaywalking and disorderly conduct.
The refugee board reportedly acknowledged that the police in the United States disproportionately stop and question African Americans. But it emphasized that refugee status addresses persecution—not harassment.
"I find that the claimant is not a Convention refugee in that he does not have a well-founded fear of persecution for a Convention ground in the United States of America,” the refugee board’s Ron Yamauchi wrote in the decision.
Yamauchi added: “His removal to the United States of America would not subject him personally to a risk to his life or to a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.”
Prior to the board’s decision, Canty said he would appeal an unfavorable ruling.