“In my experience, 80 to 90 per cent of the people who are denied asylum in the United States do end up winning their refugee claim before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada,” Khan said.
Khan explained that everyone who enters Canada and makes a claim “is vetted for security” using American, European and Interpol databases.
They have two weeks after arriving to make a claim. They have access to legal aid and social assistance until they get a hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Since the beginning of January, at least 61 asylum seekers have crossed the border into Manitoba from the U.S., often dropped by smugglers and told to walk long distances in the middle of the night. That’s compared to between 50 and 60 in a typical year.
In 2016 there were 7,022 land border crossings by asylum seekers, up from 4,407 in 2015, according to the Canadian Border Services Agency.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday that “people travelling unprepared in very severe winter weather conditions” is “of concern to us.”
“We are examining right now what are the appropriate steps to take to protect the integrity of the border, to make sure that public health and safety is properly protected and to make sure that the people involved here are treated in a fair and compassionate way,” Goodale added.
The legal reasons asylum seekers sneak across the Canada-U.S. border | CTV News