Canada and the US reached an agreement to close Roxham Road, the illegal border crossing between Quebec and New York State, about 50 km south of Montreal..Radio-Canada, citing sources, says “Ottawa agreed to welcome a certain number of migrants through official channels. The precise details of the deal are still not known.”.“It has been a lingering source of tension between Ottawa, Quebec and the United States because of an influx of asylum seekers entering Canada through it,” says Radio-Canada..It's estimated 40,000 people entered Canada through Roxham Road, from Central America, South America, Asia, the Caribbean and other departure points. .A Canadian government report released this week said it spent almost $270 million since 2017 providing shelter, transportation, food and health services to the asylum seekers..The Trudeau Liberals have been under pressure from the Quebec government as well as the opposition Conservative Party, with the respective leaders Premier François Legault and Pierre Poilievre both calling for Roxham’s closure..Legault has been particularly vocal, saying the asylum seekers strained Quebec’s social services. While some asylum seekers are sent to Ontario, the majority are housed in Quebec..“Trudeau said last month the only way to shut down Roxham is to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement. But United States Ambassador David Cohen said that would do little to address irregular migration,” reports Radio-Canada..The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the US is designed to make asylum seekers claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, meaning they cannot arrive in the US and make their way to an official land border crossing into Canada to seek asylum..Roxham Road is not an official crossing point..“The news comes just ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's first official visit to Canada as president,” says Radio-Canada. “Biden will arrive in Ottawa Thursday and depart late on Friday. It's not clear whether the deal will be announced during or after the visit.”.Radio-Canada's sources said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser met with their counterparts to reach the deal..In recent weeks, migrants who crossed the US/Mexico border illegally and were bussed to New York City, were then bussed to Plattsburgh, New York, and from there entered Canada through Roxham Road..Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
