Groups launch constitutional challenge of Safe Third Country Agreement

A Canada Border Services Agency patch is seen on the shoulder of a CBSA officer at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

OTTAWA — Amnesty International and the Canadian Council for Refugees have filed a new Federal Court challenge of the constitutionality of a treaty with the U.S. that says refugees must claim asylum in whichever country they arrive in first.

The groups argue that a 2023 Supreme Court decision on the Safe Third Country Agreement — which allows refugees to avoid being sent back to the U.S. if they face unnecessary detention or the risk of deportation to a country where their rights and lives would be threatened — is being violated.

The refugee rights organizations say the Canada Border Services Agency is not properly applying this rule and is turning people away despite evidence that their rights are threatened.

A Honduran family central to the group’s challenge allegedly was denied entry to Canada despite the fact that their U.S. asylum claims had been cancelled.

The groups say the family was detained for two weeks in the U.S. before being deported back to Honduras, where they live in hiding from gangs and death threats that forced them to flee their home.

This case is separate from another constitutional challenge of the entire Safe Third Country Agreement that the two organizations are part of, along with the Canadian Council of Churches.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press