A new U.S.-Canada border agreement aimed at stopping the flow of asylum seekers through unofficial crossings has taken effect, according to the BBC. Under the deal, migrants caught crossing anywhere along the 3,145‑mile (5,060 km) border can be returned. The agreement closes a loophole that previously allowed migrants to claim asylum at unsanctioned ports of entry, such as Roxham Road, which has seen large numbers of crossings.
The announcement came as President Joe Biden visited Ottawa to discuss economic, trade and immigration issues with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The pact is part of broader efforts to curb the influx of migrants at Roxham Road, an unofficial crossing between New York State and the province of Quebec. Last year, a record 40,000 migrants entered Canada, the vast majority through Roxham Road.
As part of the new arrangement, Canada will launch a refugee program for 15,000 migrants fleeing persecution and violence in South and Central America, the prime minister’s office said. The original 2004 Safe Third Country Act (STCA) required migrants to seek asylum in the first “safe” country they reached—either the U.S. or Canada—and allowed each nation to turn migrants away at official points of entry, but not at unofficial crossings like Roxham Road. The new deal extends the agreement to the entire border, including internal waterways.
Refugee advocates have criticized the deal as ineffective in ending irregular crossings into Canada. “It is not going to stop people,” Abdulla Daoud, executive director of The Refugee Centre in Montreal, told the BBC, adding that the measure could incentivize human smuggling. Regarding the new refugee program, he said, “The numbers are too low. We had 40,000 cross just in the past year—15,000 is a low number and just from one part of the world, the Western hemisphere.”
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