Officials say the massive wave of would-be refugees crossing into Canada has slowed significantly since the end of March, when the government negotiated a deal with the United States to turn away asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings like Roxham Road, closing a long-standing loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement.
That agreement assumes that Canada and the U-S are ``safe'' countries for would-be refugees, forcing asylum seekers to apply for refugee status in the first country they enter _ Canada or the U-S _ and prohibiting them from crossing the border to file a claim.
Estelle Muzzi, mayor of border community St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, says residents who live near Roxham Road have reported a decrease in foot traffic in the area since the treaty was expanded.
Refugee advocacy group Bridges Not Borders says local volunteers have also reported a decline in the number of people arriving to cross through Roxham Road.
But the group expects asylum seekers will now likely try to enter Canada through other spots along the nine-thousand-kilometre border separating the two countries.
Border officials are also reporting a drop in the number of migrants trying to cross the border between official ports of entry.
The Canada Border Services Agency said that from March 25 to April 2, it recorded 191 cases of people crossing irregularly.
Out of that total, 144 claimants were returned to the U-S in accordance with the expanded agreement; 54 were deemed eligible to make an asylum claim in Canada.
Before the new treaty went into effect, the government reported that since December of 2022, about 45-hundred people were crossing through Roxham Road every month.