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25-03-2023
OTTAWA/ WASHINGTON: The US and Canada have reached a deal to reject asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings, officials say.
Large numbers of migrants have been making unsanctioned crossings on Roxham Road at the US-Canada border.
The move closes a loophole created by a 2004 asylum agreement with the US on where migrants have to make their asylum claims.
It prevented Canada from turning away people trying to enter at unofficial crossing points.
As a part of the deal, Canada will now also create a new refugee program for 15,000 migrants fleeing persecution and violence in South and Central America, unnamed US officials told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
Biden is in Ottawa, Canada, for 24 hours to talk about a series of economic, trade and immigration issues with Trudeau.
The migration accord is scheduled to be announced before he returns to the US on Friday.
The agreement is expected to allow officials on both sides of the border to turn back such asylum seekers heading in either direction.
The US side has also seen a rise in migrant crossings there from Canada with the decision.
The move is part of efforts to limit an influx of migrants at Roxham Road, an unofficial crossing between New York State and the province of Quebec.
The deal is an amendment to the two sides’ 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires migrants to make an asylum claim in the first “safe” country they reach, whether it is the US or Canada.
The new arrangement would close a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement that prevented Canada from turning away those crossing the border at unofficial crossing points.
The loophole had led migrants to enter Canada from places like Roxham Road.
New York City authorities last month said they were providing free bus tickets for migrants to travel up towards the US border with Canada. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
