Canada’s Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser offered few details on Monday about the program that will allow the reception of 15,000 migrants, as agreed under the renegotiation of the Agreement on safe third countries. Under the new parameters of the agreement, which came into effect on March 25, migrants cannot apply for asylum between border crossings.
The federal minister says he is yet to develop policies that will inform the reception of 15,000 migrants. “I have in mind the situation in Haiti because of the condition of the country and the ties between the Haitian people and Canada,” he said, however. Since 1er January, at least 530 people were killed in the country due to armed conflicts between gangs and police according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Ottawa has indicated that the 15,000 migrants who will be welcomed each year will come from the Western Hemisphere, but Minister Fraser did not specify on Monday which countries would be included in the program. “We will see if we exclusively target people in the hemisphere or those who have been to the hemisphere,” he said at a press conference. After Haitians, Turks and Colombians were the most likely to seek asylum on Roxham Road in 2022.
It is still not known when the details of the hosting program will be known or the criteria that will be set to qualify for it. But Minister Fraser said he hoped to be able to accommodate the 15,000 migrants over the next 12 months.
9000 km of border to patrol
The federal government has also not specified how it intends to patrol the entire 8,900 km Canada-US border. Liberals have for years argued that it would be difficult to close the loophole allowing the irregular passage of migrants between border crossings. The Safe Third Country Agreement provides that a migrant must seek asylum in the first country in which he sets foot.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which patrols the border, told the Duty that “if necessary, resources from other sectors could be reallocated in the short term to meet operational needs”. But the federal police did not offer more information “for operational reasons”.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, seemed to suggest that these numbers have not yet been reassigned, three days after the announcement by the Prime Minister and US President Joe Biden of an “additional protocol” provided for in the cross-border agreement to prevent irregular crossings from now on, such as Roxham Road, in Montérégie.
“We will continue to look at what is necessary to ensure the security of our borders. And above all to demonstrate that we have an immigration system that works for Canadians, ”said Mr. Trudeau, upon his arrival in the Commons on Monday.
The Border Services Agency was busy this weekend installing new signs, notably on Roxham Road, warning that it is “illegal to enter Canada here” and that any migrant could be sent back to the United States.
On Saturday and Sunday, along the Canada-US border, nine asylum seekers were intercepted and sent back to the United States, while seven others had their cases deemed admissible and thus granted the right to pursue their asylum application. in Canada, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. Minister Fraser believes that the new agreement will reduce the number of people crossing the American continent to come to Canada.
The government did not say how many people were intercepted in total this weekend trying to enter Canada irregularly. Over the course of 2022, just over 39,500 people attempted to enter Canada, almost all of them in Quebec (nearly 39,200).
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.