For the past few weeks, Canadian Border Services Agency (Customs) agents at the airports in Toronto and Montreal have been dealing with a new issue: a significant number of foreign nationals entering the country legally are applying for asylum when they arrive.
Although asylum requests at these two airports are common, the countries of origin of asylum seekers surprised the sources who spoke to Radio-Canada.
Since the beginning of June, hundreds of visitors arriving, for example, from West African countries, such as Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mali, have requested asylum upon their arrival at these two airports.
The number of asylum seekers coming from India has also increased.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is aware of the increase in the number of asylum applications at some Canadian airports. It should be noted that this increase in the number of asylum requests submitted at airports does not only concern nationals of countries in West Africa,” confirmed a spokeswoman for the ministry, Isabelle Dubois.
“This data cannot be shared at this time,” Dubois added.
It is noteworthy that citizens of 147 countries around the world require a visa to visit Canada. The deadlines for examining their applications vary according to the country of origin.
14 As of June 2023, completed cases had an approval rate greater than 99 percent.