Once-popular rural Quebec road for asylum seekers quiets down after U.S.-Canada deal | 24CA News
About 12 hours after the closure of a rural southern Quebec street utilized by hundreds of asylum seekers to enter Canada from the United States, Evelyne Bouchard witnessed RCMP brokers escort a household of 4 folks off her property.
Bouchard, whose farm is situated about two kilometres from the forested pathway referred to as Roxham Road, says she is used to seeing police round her house; at occasions, she has discovered clothes and unknown footprints within the snow on her Hemmingford, Que., property.
In a current interview, she stated it was upsetting to see folks being taken away so quickly after the Canada-United States immigration deal closed Roxham Road to most would-be refugees.
“It’s that contrast,” she stated. “This is like my happy place — my home. I love this place, and to think that someone in that same kind of physical space is feeling afraid and vulnerable and is possibly in danger is just completely heartbreaking.”
Officials say the huge wave of would-be refugees crossing into Canada has slowed considerably for the reason that finish of March, when the federal government negotiated a cope with the United States to show away asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings like Roxham Road, closing a long-standing loophole within the Safe Third Country Agreement.
That settlement assumes that Canada and the U.S. are “safe” nations for would-be refugees. It additionally forces asylum seekers to use for refugee standing within the first nation they enter — Canada or the U.S. — and prohibits them from crossing the border to file a declare.
Estelle Muzzi, mayor of border neighborhood St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, stated residents who dwell close to Roxham Road have reported a lower in foot site visitors within the space for the reason that treaty was expanded.
“The message is getting through because I’m told that it’s gone down dramatically — there’s a big drop in traffic,” Muzzi stated in a current interview.
“I think that for the citizens of St-Bernard-de-Lacolle who were very affected by the situation, those who live right next to the border, for them, the most important thing was to find some peace and quiet,” Muzzi stated.
Frances Ravensbergen, an activist with Bridges Not Borders, a refugee advocacy group in Hemmingford, stated native volunteers have additionally reported a decline within the variety of folks arriving to cross by Roxham Road.
“The few people that we have seen crossing either don’t seem to be completely aware of the new regulations … and not realizing that if you’re handed back to the Americans, you may never apply for asylum again in Canada,” Ravensbergen stated in an interview.
But regardless of the drop in folks arriving at Roxham Road, Ravensbergen stated she thinks scenes just like the RCMP arrest on Bouchard’s property will likely be replicated throughout the nation. Now that asylum seekers are blocked from utilizing that street, they’ll possible attempt to enter Canada by different spots alongside the 9,000-kilometre border that separates the 2 nations, she stated.
Border officers are additionally reporting a drop within the variety of migrants attempting to cross the border between official ports of entry. The Canada Border Services Agency stated that from March 25 to April 2, it recorded 191 instances of individuals crossing irregularly. Out of that complete, 144 claimants have been returned to the U.S. in accordance with the expanded settlement; 54 have been deemed eligible to make an asylum declare in Canada.
Before the brand new treaty went into impact, the federal government reported that since December of 2022, about 4,500 folks have been crossing by Roxham Road each month.
Now, the CBSA stated that when RCMP brokers or native police intercept would-be refugees attempting to cross at irregular checkpoints, they take them to a chosen — and official — port of entry. There, border officers decide whether or not or not their declare is eligible.
An asylum seeker is permitted to cross an irregular checkpoint underneath 4 circumstances: they’ve relations dwelling legally in Canada; they’re an accompanied minor; they’ve authorized paperwork corresponding to a Canadian visa or legitimate work allow; or their software for refugee standing is taken into account within the “public interest.”
“If an individual does not meet an (agreement) exception or is otherwise determined inadmissible, they will be removed to the U.S. If the refugee claim is eligible, the person’s file will be referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board for consideration, and the person will be authorized to enter Canada to pursue their claim for protection,” Maria Ladouceur, a spokesperson for the company, stated by electronic mail.
Viviane Albuquerque, a Canadian and U.S. immigration lawyer based mostly in Montreal, defined that when an asylum seeker has crossed Roxham Road to Canada and is deemed ineligible to say asylum, it turns into virtually not possible for the person to hunt asylum in Canada ever once more.
“Once there is a determination based on your status — a refused refugee claim — it is very difficult to apply for refugee status again unless (the asylum seeker) tries to appeal the decision in court,” Albuquerque stated in an interview.
Bouchard stated she hoped for a very long time that Canada and the U.S. would renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement — to make it simpler for migrants to file asylum claims in both nation.
“It was just such a gut punch that it went in exactly the opposite direction to what we’d hoped, making it more dangerous and more difficult and driving people into the woods, where they’re more likely to be in danger.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
