Under the 19-year-old Safe Third Country Agreement, Canada and the United States recognize each other as safe havens in which people can seek shelter.
This means that Canada can turn away potential refugees who are at official land ports of entry along the Canada-US border on the grounds that they must submit their application in the United States, the country where they first arrived .
However, since the agreement only applies to official border crossings, many refugees use irregular border crossings, including the now famous Roxham Road, which ends in Montérégie near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. Once in Canada, their asylum application can be processed by the authorities.
In 2022, a record 39,171 people crossed the border irregularly, according to the number of apprehensions reported by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated on Wednesday that modernizing the Safe Third Countries Agreement is a solution to limit the flow of irregular refugees. According to him, these renegotiations have been going on for months, years, and we are making progress.
But in an interview with CBC’s Power & Politics, the US Ambassador to Ottawa said no one in the US will confirm that there are specific discussions about the Safe Third Countries Agreement, and I will not be the first American official to say so does.
David Cohen is the United States Ambassador to Canada.
Photo: Radio Canada
The diplomat acknowledges that irregular migration is a major problem for Western countries, including Canada and the United States, but says Roxham Road is just a symptom of the problem.
“No matter what we do with the Safe Third Countries Agreement, there will be no solution, or it will solve very little, [le problème de] irregular migration. […] It is a mistake to think that by only treating the symptoms you will solve the problem. […] If you’re serious, you need to attack the root cause of the problem. And yes, there have been discussions [avec le Canada] To this topic. »
— A quote from David Cohen, US Ambassador to Canada
We are keen to continue productive discussions with Canada on this issue, he added, recalling that the issue of irregular migration was at the heart of the Los Angeles Declaration, an agreement signed last June with Canada and some twenty Latin American governments Limiting the migration flow was signed by migrants in the region.
“I think we need to focus on the problem, not the symptoms of the problem,” he reiterated.
The Roxham Road mystery has caused widespread concern, particularly in Quebec, and prompted Prime Minister François Legault to launch an offensive towards Ottawa, demanding the crossing be closed. On Sunday he wrote to Mr. Trudeau to demand that all people crossing this temporary passage be diverted to other provinces.
The message was echoed by the leader of the official federal opposition, Canada’s Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who on Tuesday also called for Roxham Road to be closed within 30 days. In his view, there is no need to review or even suspend the Safe Third Countries Agreement in order to close Roxham Road.