The Parti Québécois (PQ) is calling for the closure of Roxham Road, this entryway to Canada for irregular immigration.
A record number of entries has been recorded since the reopening of the path in November, or 8,000 asylum applications, according to what Radio-Canada reported.
“We are, for the first three months of the year, at 7,000 entries and we will soon reach 10,000 entries, noted PQ MP Pascal Bérubé, in a press scrum Tuesday morning at the National Assembly. That’s more than 90% of illegal entries into Canada. That can not continue. »
At his side, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon maintains that the federal government deliberately reopened Roxham Road knowing full well that Quebec did not have the integration capacity to accommodate this flood of arrivals.
“It’s chaos and it’s probably intentional,” he said. This is intentional insofar as the Government of Quebec has requested a completely different management of Roxham Road. »
Mr. Bérubé asks that the federal government instead open another entry point for irregular immigration in Ontario.
“Why is it happening in Quebec? Obviously, there is no sensitivity (from the federal level) with regard to integration capacities and then to French. Ottawa doesn’t give a damn. »
Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, which came into effect in 2004, Canada and the United States recognize each other as “safe places” in which to seek refuge and protection. This means in practice that Canada may turn away a potential refugee who arrives at land ports of entry along the Canada-US border, because that refugee must pursue their asylum claim in the United States, where they are originally from. first arrived.
It was this agreement that prompted asylum seekers to take Roxham Road in Montérégie, because this passage is not an “official entry point”; Canada must therefore hear their refugee claim.