Quebec premier ‘happy’ with Roxham Road closure – Montreal | 24CA News
Quebec Premier François Legault says he’s “happy” that the irregular border crossing between Quebec and New York often called Roxham Road will shut as of midnight.
“I think it’s a very beautiful victory,” Legault stated at a day press convention in Montreal.
The deal was reached between U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau throughout Biden’s first official go to to Ottawa since taking workplace two years in the past.
Policy-wise, the transfer implies that the Safe Third Country Agreement now applies to all border crossings, together with irregular ones equivalent to Roxham.
The settlement requires that asylum seekers should make a refugee declare within the first secure nation they attain — Canada or the United States.
But it didn’t require turning again asylum seekers who cross irregularly at locations equivalent to Roxham Road, which was thought-about a loophole.
Under the expanded deal, asylum seekers attempting to enter by means of any irregular border crossing will now be turned away and despatched to the closest American port of entry.
According to federal knowledge, almost 40,000 migrants crossed by means of Roxham Road final yr alone.
Closing Roxham is one thing Legault has been asking Ottawa to do.
The premier had expressed considerations over the variety of folks crossing, saying Quebec had reached its welcoming capability.
The province supplied housing and different requirements for asylum seekers whereas their requests have been processed however Legault argued sources have been stretched skinny.
As a part of the brand new deal, Canada dedicated to accepting 15,000 immigrants from the Western Hemisphere.
But Legault insists Quebec has already carried its weight.
“Given the great number (of asylum seekers) we received last year in Quebec, I think we did our part,” Legault stated. “I think there’s some catching up to do so that there are more in other provinces.”
While Legault celebrates the transfer, these working with refugees are involved.
“Is it a dream or a nightmare? I have to pinch myself,” stated Frantz André, the top of the Action Committee for People with out Status.
“How can we take decisions as quickly as that. It is people’s lives. Those are people, they’re not numbers, they’re not cattle that you take from a point to another point. That’s not right, that’s not acceptable.”
André says the brand new coverage will put migrants fleeing crises in additional misery.
“They’ve seen Canada to be more welcoming, a more generous country and now that Canada is saying no, that will put people in very extreme distress,” André stated.
André additionally worries about those that try to hitch their households in Canada and is perhaps turned away.
— with information from Global’s Sean Boynton and Farah Nasser
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
