After closing it during the pandemic, the federal government reopened Roxham Road in November 2021. Since then, Quebec has been asking for the closure of this irregular passage that hundreds of asylum seekers use daily in search of a better life. Here are six questions to better understand the situation.
What is Roxham Road?
Roxham Road is a crossing that crosses the Canada-US border from the small town of Champlain, New York State, United States. On the Quebec side, it is in the small municipality of Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, in Montérégie, about 65 km south of Montreal. The point of arrival is just minutes from the Canada Border Services Agency.
Over the years, the path has become one of the most well-known irregular entry points in the world, not least because it is safe and very easy to cross the border. After about a kilometer of road, just cross a small ditch and walk a few meters to reach the street on the Canadian side.
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The passage was fairly unknown before Donald Trump came to power in 2017. But Washington’s tougher tone towards migrants, combined with Justin Trudeau’s openness messages, would have convinced thousands of migrants to borrow it.
Why are we talking about it now?
Last week, a migrant of Haitian origin living in Montreal lost his life, frozen on Roxham Road, while trying to illegally join his wife in the United States. The man was brought there by a smuggler who left him, in the middle of a snowstorm, too far from his illegal crossing point.
According to a new survey commissioned by a group that has just filed a criminal complaint against Justin Trudeau, more and more Quebecers want Roxham Road to be closed. In fact, 68% of respondents said they wanted to close this irregular entry point.
In 2022, more than 35,000 people would have taken the path.
Who borrows it?
“A persistent myth is that anyone can cross the Roxham Road and find refuge in Canada, but this is not true. These are asylum seekers, therefore people fleeing war, persecution and other contexts that put their lives in danger in their country of origin,” recalls the Executive Director of Amnesty International Canada Francophone, France-Isabelle Langlois.
Upon their arrival in Canada, migrants are not left to their own devices. Officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are waiting for them, and their case is being handled by border authorities. The latter will determine whether their request is admissible or not, indicates Louis-Philippe Jannard, doctoral student in law at UQAM and specialist in immigration.
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“There are several criteria that mean that the person could not even apply for asylum, which already ensures a certain sorting. We can think of someone with a serious criminal history, for example. Someone who has already received a decision of inadmissibility at an official point could not resubmit an application either,” he explains.
The citizens’ group in the area where Roxham Road is located, Building Bridges, says that between 2017 and 2019, the three most common countries of origin of irregular asylum seekers were Nigeria, Haiti, and Colombia.
Why do they borrow it?
Beyond the geographical and security aspects of the path, the popularity of this crossing point is explained by legal reasons, says Louis-Philippe Jannard.
“This is a consequence of the Safe Countries Agreement, an agreement signed between Canada and the United States which stipulates that migrants who wish to seek asylum must do so in the first country where they set foot. . So, in the case of applicants who come from the south, the United States,” he explains.
Photo archives, AFP
Because of this agreement, a migrant from the United States who presents himself at an official point is turned back at the Canadian border.
However, the Agreement only applies to official points of entry, ie customs posts. Migrants who cross at Roxham Road, when they are picked up by Canadian authorities, can therefore submit a formal asylum application.
In Quebec, all the provincial parties agree on the urgency of reviewing this agreement. Although it does not commit to blocking the way to migrants, the Trudeau government assures that negotiations are underway with the United States to remedy the situation.
Irregular migrants arriving via Roxham Road also benefit from the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees enacted in 1951, ratified by Canada, and the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. These stipulate that asylum seekers will not be penalized if they enter a country irregularly, provided that they report to the authorities without delay, mentions France-Isabelle Langlois.
Why not close it?
Even if the crossing were closed, migrants would continue to cross the Canadian border. They would likely take much less secure paths by falling back on human smuggling networks, with potentially disastrous consequences, warns Ms.me Langlois.
On January 27, the RCMP confirmed, for example, that a family of four originally from India had been found frozen to death near the Canada-US border in Manitoba. She had probably been abandoned by illegal smugglers.
On the other hand, Louis-Philippe Jannard recalls that Roxham Road allows the authorities to keep an eye on migrants crossing the border.
“There is a whole infrastructure in place that ensures that the authorities know who is coming to Canada by the way. [S’il était fermé]it would be much more difficult for the authorities to know who is crossing the border,” he warns.
Why not leave it open?
Even if Quebec does not support all asylum seekers who cross Roxham Road – some leave for other provinces – the Legault government believes that the situation is unsustainable. The CAQ estimates the accommodation capacity of Quebec at 1150 applicants, a number almost already reached, said Jean Boulet yesterday.
Photo Stevens Leblanc
The province must manage a large part of the services offered to migrants awaiting a decision in their case. Among these services: help in finding accommodation, enrolling children in school and last resort social assistance, notes Louis-Philippe Jannard. However, the federal government pays for a good part of these services.
Finally, the massive influx of migrants via Roxham Road is slowing down the processing of asylum applications. It now takes more than a year to determine whether an application is admissible, whereas in the past this period was a few days. This slowness in particular prevents these migrants from finding work.