36 hours after the closure of Roxham Road, the passage used by thousands of asylum seekers to cross the border, the road is much quieter than the day before. But new fears populate these people without status. An immigration lawyer sheds light on the darkness.
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Asylum seekers have been seen at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border post since Sunday morning. According to images captured by TVA Nouvelles, these people were seen collecting their suitcases and then boarding a bus. Your destination is unknown.
An exception can be requested for asylum applications.
“Unfortunately, exceptions are very limited. We are talking about family members, but to a limited extent, that is, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, nephew and niece,” explains Stéphanie Valois, immigration lawyer.
“There are certain restrictions on the status of the person in Canada. Must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or person whose refugee application has been referred. Unaccompanied minors can be admitted if their family members are not in the United States or Canada,” she said.
Remember that Roxham Road closed at midnight on Saturday as part of the Canada-United States Agreement on Safe Third Countries, which applies to the entire land border between the two countries.
“The law or treaty mentions that a person can apply for refugee status if they can show that they have stayed in Canada for more than 14 days. That’s the worry. A person wishing to cross the border anywhere other than Roxham without getting caught will likely use the services of smugglers, which is a shame as we wanted to get rid of them by closing Roxham. In our opinion it will increase. The person will also have to go into hiding from Canadian authorities for two weeks, which is a long time to prove they entered Canada for two weeks or more in order to apply for asylum thereafter,” explains the immigration expert.