The United States and Canada have reached a deal to stop a flood of refugees from crossing the land border between the two countries, but the two sides have yet to agree on the details when President Joe Biden meets the Canadian Prime Minister. Justin Trudeau. This was reported to Reuters on Thursday evening by a Canadian government source familiar with the negotiations.
A revised Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) will be discussed Friday at a meeting between Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, with a formal announcement likely to come later.
Trudeau is under pressure to stop the flow of refugees crossing the Canadian border, mainly into Quebec, the French-speaking province that Trudeau himself represents in Parliament.
Biden arrived in Canada for a visit Thursday evening to express his unity with Ukraine. This visit has been postponed for a long time. On Friday, the US president will address Parliament with Trudeau.
Border crossings between the two countries are governed by the STCA agreement, which allows authorities to return asylum seekers back and forth to official entry points, but does not extend to unofficial crossings such as the Wroxham Road in Quebec.
Roxham Road, a dirt road that has become a favorite route for asylum seekers, hit the headlines in 2017, shortly after former President Donald Trump began mass deporting illegal migrants, leading to a massive influx of asylum seekers in Canada.
The United States and Canada share the longest land border in North America, and the new agreement will expand the pact to cover the entire length of the border. Asylum seekers who are detained while crossing unofficial crossings will be returned to the United States.
As part of the deal, Ottawa agreed to take in an as-yet-unknown number of refugees, but the source warned those details needed to be agreed.
Canada has been pushing the United States for some time to extend the deal. In recent months, there has been a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers entering Canada through unofficial border crossings.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trudeau said the US and Canadian governments have been working for many months on a solution to the “difficult” problem of illegal border crossings, and he hopes to announce it soon.
