With Roxham Road closed, what happens to migrants who want to enter Canada illegally?
Roxham Road has been closed since March 24, 2023 at midnight, but what is happened to migrants who were on their way to cross Canada illegally?
Today, Frantz André, member of the Committee for the Actions of Non-Status Persons (CAPSS) since 2015, and human rights activist, answered some questions regarding the recent closure of Roxham Road.
His role was mostly rubbing shoulders, receiving and campaigning on the ground for asylum seekers who needed to be accompanied in their immigration processes. Frantz André is still trying to help migrants who wish to come to Canada.
Roxham Road is a stretch of land where migrants arriving from the United States came illegally to Canada to seek asylum. Since the third safe country agreement applied only to the legal ports of entry, there at Roxham Road, migrants can re-apply for refugee status without being deported to the USA where they have already made the application before.
While investigating on site, I discovered a multitude of papers and documents. On some of these papers, which were deliberately thrown away at Roxham Road, several phone numbers were written. One of the numbers had an area code of Montreal 514, I phoned and spoke with a man who had crossed illegally in 2017.
He told me that in 2017 while he was in the USA, he didn't want to go to his appointment and be deported and sent back to his country. Because in his country there are no jobs, there are unemployed.
He did retract himself for the interview and it is when Frantz André came toward me to take his place for an interview.
I asked him if he ever told migrants that the only option available to them was to go through Roxham Road.
Frantz answered:
It would be irresponsible of me and criminal of me to tell people to go through the small woods where they will fall into a river.
I explain to them what the third safe country is and I explain to them that there is a regular and irregular point of entry and that it is up to them to make the choice.
What will happen with the migrants who want to come to Canada? We will report on it closely to bring you the other side of the story, follow us at RoxhamRoadExposed.com.
Alexandra Lavoie
Quebec based Journalist
Alexa graduated with a degree in biology from Laval University. Throughout her many travels, she has seen political instability as well as corruption. While she witnessed social disorder on a daily basis, she has always been a defender of society’s most vulnerable. She’s been around the world several times, and now joins Rebel News to shed light on today’s biggest stories.