Roxham Road still busy with asylum seekers after Biden, Trudeau amend pact

CHAMPLAIN, NEW YORK/TORONTO (Reuters) – Warned by police that they could be sent back, asylum seekers continued to enter Canada through an unofficial U.S. border crossing on Wroxham Road. . A year-old asylum agreement to try to stem the influx.

When snow began to fall on Wroxham Road Saturday afternoon, a Canadian Border Services Agency spokesman said the agency had just begun processing asylum seekers arrested under the new protocol and sent one back to the United States. said.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement after a record number of asylum seekers arrived in Canada across the unofficial border. He put pressure on Prime Minister Trudeau to deal with it.

The Safe Third Country Agreement, which was signed in 2002 and came into effect in 2004, was initially designed to turn asylum seekers entering Canada or the United States at formal border crossings and to first apply for asylum in a “safe” country. It was meant to be told to do. Arrived.

It now covers the entire 3,987 miles (6,416 km) of the border. Under the revised agreement, anyone who enters any country along its land border and applies for asylum within 14 days will be turned back.

Wroxham Road, a notorious unofficial crossing for asylum seekers to Canada, closed at midnight on Saturday. But dozens crossed anyway, including one group with babies and toddlers after midnight. Police took them into custody and warned them they could be turned back.

Police have unveiled new signs near a dirt trail that connects New York and Quebec, informing people that they could be arrested and extradited to the United States if they crossed.

The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), which polices the port of entry, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which polices the rest of the border, refer enforcement questions to the federal department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Did.

The ministry returned enforcement questions to the CBSA and RCMP and said in a statement that the two agencies “will work together to maintain the integrity of Canada’s borders.”

The Quebec RCMP did not immediately respond to questions about what would happen to those intercepted on Wroxham Road Saturday morning.

A 30-year-old Pakistani man who requested anonymity said he took a taxi from New York City.

“I have nowhere to go,” he said.

he went to canada

About 25 people from Venezuela, Haiti, Ecuador and Peru were confused at a bus stop early Saturday, wondering what to do next. Told. Another was listening upon arrival.

The purpose of the new agreement is to promote orderly migration and ease the pressure on communities overwhelmed by the surge in asylum seekers crossing places like Wroxham Road.

But enforcing amended pacts by arresting people crossing anywhere along the border would be a logistical nightmare and could put people at risk, critics say.

Audrey Macklin, a University of Toronto law professor, said if the purpose of the change was to stop irregular crossings, “it would simply fail.”

When the asylum seekers crossed Wroxham Road, they knew that was the way to file an asylum claim and wanted the authorities to arrest them. Critics fear that if incentives turn to avoidance, people will go underground and be relegated to more dangerous modes of transportation. They will want to sneak into the country and hide for two weeks before claiming refugee status.

“This will lead people across 6,000 kilometers of borders to more dangerous, more dangerous and more covert means of entry,” Macklin said.

“It’s a job creation program for smugglers.”

Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny, Toronto and Christinne Muschi and Carlos Osorio, Champlain, NY Editing by Denny Thomas, Diane Craft, and Matthew Lewis

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