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It was a U.S programme called Temporary Protection Status (TPS). It granted tens of thousands of Haitians and others, temporary ability to live and work in the U.S. as long as their country of origin was deemed unsafe due to natural disasters, conflict, or epidemic.
The U.S had been warning for over a year that it was ending these programmes. This led to the beginning of a wave of illegal border crossings into Canada from people, mostly Haitians, who feared the U.S would send them back to Haiti.
17.000 crossings this year
It is illegal to cross into Canada anywhere other than an established border crossing. But because the U.S is deemed a safe country, asylum claims made at such crossings will be refused. However, if a claim is made from within Canada, it must be treated and there are several open areas where crossings are taking place enabling people to get on to Canadian soil. The government labelling this as “irregular border crossing”.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they have intercepted some 17,000 people making the illegal crossing since January, most of whom are Haitians.
With the ending of the TPS programmes, some 2,500 Nicaraguans, about 57,000 Hondurans, and about 60,000 Haitians are potentiall affected as well as Salvadorans and Syrians. Estimates vary from news sources saying there anywhere from 320,000 to 437,000 living in the U.S under TPS programmes.
The U.S has said it will extend the TPS for Haitians one last time until July 2019. The TPS for over 200,000 Salvadorans is set to expire in March.
A story that the federal Liberal government will accept one million immigrants over the next three years, ended up distorted on social media and in the Haitian press that Canada was accepting a million immigrants this year, and proof that Haitians were being welcomed.
Global News reports that in September it received an intelligence report from the Canada Border Services Agency warning that, “if TPS designations are not renewed, the number of (asylum claims in Canada) for the impacted countries is likely to spike”.
The vast number of asylum claims has created an enormous backlog of thousands of cases waiting for their claim to be heard.
Additional information – sources
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