TORONTO: According to statistics by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Pakistan ranked third in the 2001 census after Afghanistan and Sri Lanka as a source country of refugees. Shocking as that fact may be, the numbers for 2003 are going to be whacked over the boundary as March 21 nears. That date is more than the first day of spring; it is the deadline for Pakistani non-citizens to register with the US government as part of its anti-terrorism measures.

All Pakistanis with expired visas, or those who have no legal status because they have been laid off by the company sponsoring them, or have dropped out of school, or came into the country illegally, face detention and deportation. As a result Pakistanis, many of whom have lived for years in the United States without legal residency papers, are crowding the Canadian border to seek asylum.

It’s eerie to see scenes that are normally associated with refugee camps in Peshawar play out here. There have been reports of families carrying all their belongings and leading small children, walking across fields of snow in below freezing temperatures across the US border to ask for amnesty in Canada.

The painful thing is that many of the immigrants have visas or full residency in the United States, but have packed up their belongings after hearing frightening stories of Pakistanis who have been held in custody for months on technical violations, then deported without their children. One news report quoted a man saying, “When I came to US two years ago, I started from zero. Now I guess I’ll start again from zero.”

While Canadian officials struggle to deal with a situation for which they have no experience, they have started to require asylum seekers to make appointments and cross back to the US side of the border while they wait, an estimated four to six weeks. Hundreds of families are in limbo, living in make-shift shelters and cheap motels in border towns in New York and Vermont. This has put exceptional strain on small towns unused to such influx of visitors. Vive La Casa, a refugee organization in Buffalo, a US town on the other side of Niagara, has had to post a notice on its website to warn refugees — read Pakistanis — that “overcrowding has also forced us to change our housing policy. Refugees who travel to Vive should be prepared to find independent housing in hotels or hostels. We will be unable to house most refugees entering Canada.”

Canadian law uses the United Nations definition of a “Convention Refugee” i.e. people who have grounds for fearing persecution in their home country because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion can seek refuge. As the US is considered a “safe” country it will be hard going to convince the Immigration and Refugee Board (which is independent of Citizenship and Immigration Canada) that Pakistanis have a realistic fear of persecution.

Extra border security has brought about other changes as well. One could cross into the US several times just by showing his or her Permanent Resident papers. This is no longer possible.

Now all landed immigrants and permanent resident who are not yet Canadian citizens, but living in Canada (approximately 600,000 people) must possess a valid passport from their home country, and non-immigrant visa to enter the United States.

The visa cost 100 US dollars and takes up to two months to be processed.