A man was found dead Wednesday on Roxham Road, a common crossing between the United States and Canada used by migrants to claim asylum.
The man was a migrant trying to cross the unofficial border, according to information obtained by Radio-Canada.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Quebec’s provincial police, confirmed the death Thursday morning. The circumstances surrounding the death remain unclear.
“We will be investigating the cause of death, this will take some time,” an SQ spokesman said.
The SQ confirmed the man’s body was found on Wednesday afternoon between Roxham Road and the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing, about five kilometers away.
His nationality is unknown.
Roxham Road is an unofficial border crossing that crosses the Canada-US border between Quebec and New York state.
According to the federal government, 45,250 asylum seekers arrived in Quebec between January and November 2022 — far more than in 2021, when 7,290 would-be refugees entered the country through the province.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the province is unable to handle the number of refugee applicants crossing Roxham Road. In May 2022, Quebec asked the federal government to close the unofficial border crossing.
Front Burner25:04 Refugees at Roxham Road, Canada’s busiest ‘irregular’ border crossing
In 2017, an unprecedented number of people crossed into Canada illegally from the United States on Roxham Road to claim asylum. And in just two years, about 50,000 migrants have entered Canada through this unofficial entry point. Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Susan Ormiston returns to Roxham Road to tell how it became internationally known as the de facto border crossing for those seeking refugee status in Canada.
Migrants have died trying to cross the border before. In 2019, a man from the Dominican Republic was found dead in Canada near Roxham Road, the Washington Post reported. In January 2022, the bodies of four Indian migrants were found in Manitoba near the US border.
Add Comment