Mexico, which is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has risen to the top of Canada's refugee claimant list.

Monday, February 13, 2006 - Statistics released by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada state that more than 3,500 Mexican Nationals called Canada "home" last year. Mexico is now in Canada's number one position on its top ten refugee-producing nations list beating out previous top ranking refugee source nations such as China, and Sri Lanka.

Backgrounder:

• 19 per cent of 3,541 Mexican refugee referrals were accepted in 2005.
• As a whole, Canada accepted 44 per cent of 27,212 refugee claimant cases.