The Liberal government is taking steps to stem the tide of asylum seekers who have been crossing into Canada from the U.S. at unofficial border crossings.
Tucked into this year’s 392-page omnibus budget bill, which arrived in the House of Commons this evening, is a provision that would prevent anyone who has made a refugee claim in certain other countries from making another claim in Canada.
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The provision applies to claims made in countries with which Canada has information-sharing agreements.
Only a handful of countries qualify.
The United States, through which all of the irregular border crossers pass, is one of them.
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Mathieu Genest, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, says the change’s primary effect is expected to be on people whose refugee claims have been rejected in the United States and who then try again in Canada.
The language says that just having made a claim is enough to be rendered ineligible.