In March 2023, the USA and Canada amended their two-decade-old asylum-seeker pact, the Safe Third Country Agreement. The agreement now applies to the length of the countries' 4,000-mile land border, rather than just at ports of entry. Under the revised pact, anyone who crosses into either country anywhere along the land border and who applies for asylum within 14 days will be turned back.
In response, some of the people filing claims days or weeks after they arrive in Canada are hoping to skirt a clause in the expanded agreement with the U.S. that says any asylum seeker apprehended within two weeks of crossing the US-Canada border will be turned back unless they meet a narrow exemption.
That has prompted some to cross over undetected, sometimes with a smuggler's help, and hide until the two-week period elapses.
The Refugee Centre in Montreal says it helped four families in one day last week who had been in hiding for a fortnight after crossing overland into the country.
related article : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-shut-its-land-border-asylum-seekers-more-refugees-came-anyway-2023-09-02/
In response, some of the people filing claims days or weeks after they arrive in Canada are hoping to skirt a clause in the expanded agreement with the U.S. that says any asylum seeker apprehended within two weeks of crossing the US-Canada border will be turned back unless they meet a narrow exemption.
That has prompted some to cross over undetected, sometimes with a smuggler's help, and hide until the two-week period elapses.
The Refugee Centre in Montreal says it helped four families in one day last week who had been in hiding for a fortnight after crossing overland into the country.
related article : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-shut-its-land-border-asylum-seekers-more-refugees-came-anyway-2023-09-02/
