Major Canada-U.S. border rules change to take effect within hours | 24CA News
Canada and the United States have agreed to implement the Safe Third Country Agreement throughout the whole shared land border, in an effort to discourage irregular migrant crossings at unofficial entryways like Roxham Road.
The change will take impact at midnight Saturday, in keeping with a joint assertion from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.
Canada has additionally agreed to welcome a further 15,000 migrants from the Western Hemisphere over the following yr as a part of the settlement.
The deal comes throughout Biden’s first official journey to Canada as president. The particulars had been launched shortly after he completed delivering an tackle to a joint session of Parliament within the House of Commons.
Since 2004, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) has required that asylum seekers make their declare within the first “safe” nation they attain. In follow, it has meant that border officers in Canada flip again would-be asylum seekers who present up at official checkpoints from the U.S. But they haven’t been required to show again asylum seekers who cross irregularly at locations akin to Roxham Road in Quebec.
Last yr, almost 40,000 migrants entered Canada via Roxham Road, in keeping with federal knowledge. In December alone, the crossing noticed 4,689 migrants enter — greater than all would-be refugees who arrived in Canada in 2021.
The rising surge in migrant crossings at Roxham Road and different unofficial entry factors like Emerson, Man., has strained assets in close by communities — notably Montreal — and sparked calls from Quebec Premier François Legault and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for the federal authorities to shut Roxham Road totally.
Trudeau had stated earlier than Biden’s go to that the STCA ought to be renegotiated to handle irregular crossings. But a authorities supply informed Global News Thursday that officers in each Canada and the U.S. had been looking for to keep away from opening up the settlement to amendments, which might require approval from a carefully divided U.S. Senate.
Both sides, that supply stated, needed an answer that may be carried out shortly.
More to come back…
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
