Asylum seekers arrested crossing into Canada soar

A family claiming to be from Turkey cross the US-Canada border into Quebec last month. Photo: Reuters
A family claiming to be from Turkey cross the US-Canada border into Quebec last month. Photo: Reuters

The number of asylum seekers arrested while crossing over from the United States into Canada has sharply risen this year, following a crackdown by US President Donald Trump on illegal immigrants, migrants and refugees, official data showed.

During the first two months of 2017, Canadian police intercepted 1134 asylum seekers as they crossed the Canadian border illegally - nearly half the total number of asylum seekers intercepted last year, Canadian government data showed.

Most asylum seekers were intercepted while trying to enter the province of Quebec.

Janet Dench, executive director of the Montreal-based Canadian Council for Refugees, said Trump's policies had been a contributing factor to illegal crossings.

"Some people who have been coming to Canada have said that they had been in the US, had not planned to come to Canada but now feel unsafe in the United States," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In January, Trump issued an executive order that put a temporary ban on allowing refugees into the country, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria, and a 90-day ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Last week, a federal judge halted Trump's second version of the ban, which now applies to refugees and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries, a decision the US government is appealing.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his country would welcome those fleeing persecution after Trump issued the executive order.

Since then, images of families dragging suitcases in snow-covered fields while making their way on foot to Canada, where many are immediately escorted to police cars, have regularly made headlines.

"The approach of our government in terms of welcoming (asylum seekers) and the political context in the United States have all been contributing factors," said François Gagnon, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, referring to the rise in asylum seekers entering the country illegally.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found earlier this week that nearly half of Canadians want to deport people who are illegally crossing into Canada from the US.

- Thompson Reuters Foundation

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