Canada turning back more illegal border crossers
Canada is rejecting more refugee claims from people who crossed the border illegally as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government seeks to dissuade, block and turn back thousands more, according to data obtained by Reuters.
Forty per cent of such border crosses whose claims were finalized in the first three months of this year were granted refugee status, down from 53 per cent for all of 2017, according to data provided by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board.
The wave of illegal border crossings started in January 2017 and ramped up over the summer as many Haitian immigrants in the U.S. who were at risk of losing their temporary legal status streamed into Canada. Thousands of Nigerians have made the same crossing.
More than 27,000 asylum seekers have walked across the Canada-U.S. border since U.S. president Donald Trump took office, some of whom have told Reuters they left because of Trump’s policies and rhetoric toward immigrants.
The influx has strained Canada’s backlogged system for assisting people seeking refugee status, leaving aid agencies scrambling to meet growing demand for housing and social services.
A U.S.-Canadian border pact that turns back asylum seekers at border crossings allows immigrants who cross illegally into Canada outside of an official border crossing to apply for refugee status.
Trudeau’s government has sought to stem the influx by sending officials to the U.S. to dissuade Haitians, Salvadorans and others from illegally entering into Canada. It has asked the U.S. to amend an agreement to make it easier to turn back thousands of illegal border crosses.
Like Haitians, thousands from El Salvador in the U.S. have been told they will lose their temporary legal status.
Canada has also sent its immigration and refugee minister to Nigeria, asking the Nigerian government to help discourage its citizens from crossing illegally into Canada to claim refugee status and asking the U.S. to not grant visas to people who might then go to Canada.
Immigration and Refugee Board data shows while only a small number of border-crosser claims have been processed, acceptance rates are down for all groups seeking refugee status. The success rate is especially low for two of the biggest groups of asylum seekers: Haitians and Nigerians, with overall acceptance rates of nine per cent and 33.5 per cent, respectively.