EGN NEWS DESK
Canada introduced on Thursday that it will require visas for Mexican nationals to enter the nation, a transfer that comes amid a surge in asylum requests from Mexicans arriving in Canada.
The rule follows months of discussions between the 2 nations over the rise within the variety of Mexicans coming into Canada, together with repeated makes an attempt by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to deal with the problem with Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Some provincial officers say a surge of asylum seekers has strained their sources and their skill to supply social providers.
“We wanted to provide Mexico, due to our friendship, the possibility to rectify issues,” Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, stated at a information convention.
“This clearly was not finished,” he added, “so we needed to take a call.”
The visa mandate, which can go into impact Thursday night time, had been lifted by Mr. Trudeau in 2016 to spice up tourism and as an indication of the shut ties between the 2 nations.
Since then the variety of Mexican asylum claims has soared, to roughly 24,000 final 12 months from 260 eight years in the past. About 17 p.c of all Canadian asylum claims final 12 months have been filed by Mexican nationals.
Most asylum claims from Mexico are rejected, withdrawn or deserted, Mr. Miller stated, clogging up an immigration system already going through difficulties making an attempt to deal with a mounting backlog of refugee claims. “It has ripple results,” he stated.
For some Mexicans who can afford aircraft tickets, flying to Canada has turn out to be an alternate path to the United States, permitting them to keep away from the smugglers who management the paths to the U.S. southern border.
U.S. immigration officers have recorded a big improve within the variety of migrants, together with Mexicans, crossing into the United States from Canada, although nowhere close to the big numbers on the southern border.
“But they’re important,” Mr. Miller stated. “And that’s one thing we now have to handle as a associate with the U.S.”
Immigration has turn out to be a serious challenge within the United States forward of the November election, and the Biden administration has made the tightening of the nation’s borders a high political precedence.
President Biden and Donald J. Trump, who is sort of sure to be his Republican rival for the White House, have been each scheduled to seem on Thursday in South Texas to debate migration.
Mr. López Obrador advised reporters on Thursday that his authorities revered Canada’s determination, however stated that Canada might have sought “different alternate options,” with out providing specifics.
He additionally issued a “small, respectful, fraternal reproach” to Mr. Trudeau, although he stated that his authorities’s response can be “to behave with prudence, with serenity.”
Not all Mexicans shall be required to have a visa to journey to Canada. The rule excludes Mexicans who’ve had a Canadian visa throughout the previous 10 years, or in the event that they at present have a short lived U.S. visa. Travelers on this class want an digital journey authorization, which is legitimate for as much as 5 years.
Canada’s visa determination is the most recent step within the nation’s effort to deal with asylum claims created from common ports of entry, like airports, and from unofficial border crossings.
Canadian officers in January additionally positioned restrictions on international college students, doubling the financial savings threshold new candidates will need to have to qualify for a research allow, after a surge raised considerations about pressures on housing.
After an settlement with the United States, Canada final 12 months closed a preferred land border crossing between New York State and Quebec, known as Roxham Road, following a spike in migrants coming into Canada there.
Some provincial leaders, together with François Legault, the premier of Quebec, have criticized the federal authorities’s response and say it wants to supply extra monetary assist to defray the prices of absorbing hundreds of migrants.
About half of Canada’s 290,000 asylum seekers are in Quebec, the province’s immigration minister has stated, and Quebec is asking the federal government for 1 billion Canadian {dollars} in help.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting from Mexico City.
