border visit 8 january 2023

A chilly sunny day at Roxham Road. The first taxi arrived around 3.30 pm bringing one man from Georgia.  He was warmly  dressed and did not take any warm things. He did not speak any English or French. He walked across with one hand in the air. The RCMP officers were polite.

Shortly afterwards a taxi brought two young men, one from Afghanisatan and the other from Columbia. They accepted some warm clothes. One of the police officers spoke to the Columbian man in Spanish.

Another taxi brought a single man from Djibouti in east Africa. He spoke French . 

Next a taxi arrived with a shy couple (woman and man)  from Haiti who accepted some warm things. When the woman crossed over she failed to stop when the officer told her to do so. Eventually she did stop and the officer gave her quite a lecture about this. He asked them about open food and required them to dispose of it.  Immediately afterwards two young Venezuelans arrived and accepted some warm things. A different officer dealt with them and was low key and respectful.

Then a family of four arrived consisting of a Haitian man, a Brazilian woman and their two children, a girl aged about 12 and a boy about 4 years old.  The officer tried to encourage them to go to Lacolle and told them wrongly that their 'illegal' entry into Canada could affect their asylum case.  This is absolutely not the case as all refugee claims received by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada are treated in the same way, regardless of how the person entered Canada.  RCMP have no authority  to give out any information about asylum claims, let alone false information.

The same officer made the family go through all their belongings looking for any open food.  They had to dispose of it before crossing despite the fact that there are two large garbage bins just outside the RCMP installation. This took quite some time before they crossed over. Then, still outside, the officers took at least 10 minutes going through documents while the children were clearly suffering from the cold. Surely all this could have been dealt with inside in the warmth.  Finally they were able to go inside.

The last person to arrive was a tall young man from Sri Lanka who spoke no English. He  had a hat and gloves but accepted a scarf.  He was carrying his cell phone that he looked at the whole time. He carried only a very small paper bag and no other belongings.  After crossing he showed documents to the police officer but he did not appear to have a passport.

In total, 13 people crossed this afternoon: 2 children, two women and 9 men.