March 18, 2019 – Canada and the U.S. are in talks about altering the Safe Third Country Agreement, which many believe helps motivate asylum seekers to cross at unrecognized border points.
The bilateral agreement means that an asylum seeker has to claim refugee status in the first 'safe' country at which they arrive.
It means that asylum seekers arriving in the U.S. are not allowed to cross into Canada to claim refugee status.
If they try to cross into Canada from the U.S. at recognized border points, they are turned back.
However, they are allowed to claim refugee status if they have already made it to Canada, which is why more than 40,000 have crossed at irregular border points as they try to flee Donald Trump's U.S. immigration crackdown.
Numbers of irregular border crossers have dropped in 2019. After more than 1,000 made the journey in every month of 2018, peaking at 2,560 in April, both January (888) and February (808) saw significantly lower numbers of RCMP interceptions.
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The content of this article reflects the personal insight of Attorney Colin Singer and needs no disclaimer