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Canada Refugee Claims Spike in First Two Months of 2017


FILE - Two people who later indicated to officials they are from Sudan cross into Canada from Perry Mills, N.Y., near Hemmingford, Quebec, Feb. 26, 2017.
FILE - Two people who later indicated to officials they are from Sudan cross into Canada from Perry Mills, N.Y., near Hemmingford, Quebec, Feb. 26, 2017.

A spike in refugee claims for the first two months of 2017 put Canada on track for the highest number since at least 2011. A fifth of those claimants were caught crossing the border illegally.

Growing numbers of asylum-seekers are coming to Canada in the wake of the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pledged to crack down on refugees and undocumented immigrants.

Canada's federal government has taken heat from opponents on both the left and right for its wait-and-see approach to the influx. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found almost half of Canadians want people who entered the country illegally to be deported.

Statistics released by the government on Monday evening show 5,520 people made refugee claims in Canada in January and February.

If the pace of asylum-seekers keeps up, it will mean upwards of 33,000 refugee claims filed in Canada this year — almost 40 percent higher than 2016.

Despite the images of individuals hauling babies and belongings across the snowy border, only 20 percent of those who have filed refugee claims in Canada so far this year — 1,134 — were intercepted by Royal Canadian Mounted Police as they crossed the border illegally

Of those, the majority — 677 — were caught crossing into Quebec, with the rest in British Columbia and Manitoba (and five in the prairie province of Saskatchewan).

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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