69成人导航

U of T report highlights drivers of 'irregular' migration at Canada-U.S. border: Toronto Star

Photo of asylum-seekers making way to Canada-U.S. borders
Asylum-seekers walk along Roxham Road near Champlain, New York in 2017, making their way towards the Canada-U.S. border (photo by Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)

A report looking at the influx of so-called irregular migrants crossing into Canada has found that misinformation and hostile U.S. refugee policies were the main drivers, the Toronto Star reports.

The report was authored by Craig Damian Smith, associate director of the  at the University of Toronto鈥檚 Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and research associate at York University's Centre for Refugee Studies. It surveyed 290 of the irregular migrants from more than 50 countries that arrived in the two years starting in the spring of 2017, and found that few of them turned to smugglers to reach the border.

Smith told the Toronto Star that Ottawa鈥檚 decision to increase the capacity of the Immigration and Refugee Board and reduce misinformation through outreach campaigns was 鈥渓argely the right response鈥 to the influx.

鈥淭he RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency conduct routinized security screening,鈥 Smith told the Star. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have people trafficked. You don鈥檛 see the cat-and-mouse game you see in many other parts of the world. People arrive safely, and without criminal networks.鈥  

 

Topics

The Bulletin Brief logo

Subscribe to The Bulletin Brief

UTC