By Yseult Picard
Montreal-based street paper L’Itinéraire learned about the experiences of asylum seekers and the efforts of those who support them when they arrive in Canada.
The asylum seekers in this article crossed the US-Canadian border through Roxham Road before it was closed on 25 March 2023.
Roxham Road was an irregular entry point where tens of thousands of refugees took advantage of a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement between the US and Canada that did not provide for the return to the US of persons claiming asylum in Canada if they entered the country at a place other than an official border crossing.
The change to the agreement made in March forbids entry from that secluded country road on the border of the province of Québec and the state of New York.
This article first appeared in L’Itinéraire, a magazine sold on the streets of Montreal, Canada by people who have limited other ways of earning an income.