OTTAWA–Canada and the United States are closer to renegotiating a border agreement that has governed the treatment of asylum claimants along the shared border for almost two decades. Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair has been speaking with U.S. officials on how to address a loophole that allows non-American asylum seekers to make claims in Canada after crossing from the U.S. into Canada. ( CHAD HIPOLITO / THE CANADIAN PRESS )Under the agreement, asylum claimants must make their case to the first safe country they arrive in. Canada considers the U.S. a safe country, which allows Canadian border officials to turn back non-American asylum seekers who attempt to make claims at U.S. border crossings into Canada. In Ottawa, the opposition Conservatives have put pressure on the Liberal government to close the loophole by making the principals of the Safe Third Country Agreement apply to the entire border.

Source: thestar April 01, 2019 21:49 UTC