By
Staff
The Canadian Press
Posted May 11, 2022 11:22 am
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Quebec is asking the federal government to close a wooded border crossing south of Montreal because the province can’t handle the number of asylum seekers entering the country.
Premier François Legault says more than 100 refugee claimants are entering Quebec every day from the United States through a rural path called Roxham Road.
The popular unofficial border crossing was closed when the pandemic hit in March 2020 and reopened last November.
Read more:
Asylum seekers can use Quebec’s Roxham Road crossing as pandemic ban lifted
Legault told reporters Wednesday that many of those crossing at Roxham Road are not really refugees and are eventually ordered to leave Canada.
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Under the 2004 Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, refugee claimants who enter Canada outside an official port of entry must be processed in Canada and cannot be immediately returned to the United States.
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The premier says the federal government takes 14 months to study an asylum claim and in the meantime, Quebec has to house and care for would-be refugees and school their children.
Quebec Immigration Minister Jean Boulet told reporters in a separate briefing today the province…