Number of asylum seekers fleeing to Canada from US triples

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has openly embraced refugees

Asylum seekers sit in front of their tent in a temporary camp in Quebec, which has seen a surge in asylum-seekers, on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press via AP)

The number of asylum seekers illegally crossing the US border into Canada has tripled amid an influx of Haitians.

Apprehensions of asylum-seekers by authorities soared from 884 in June to 3,135 in July, according to government data.

Most of those contacts occurred in Quebec, where the Canadian military has constructed a camp to accommodate the volume of mostly Haitian refugees making the crossing.

In contrast to America, where Donald Trump has followed through on campaign vows to tighten immigration laws by seeking a halt on refugee entries and advocating a drastic cut in legal immigration slots, Canada has taken a more welcoming stance.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has openly embraced refugees, and the government has characterised a rising ceiling in the number of immigrants allowed in as a boost to the economy. An online ad from a Canadian law firm seeks to attract customers with the line “Illegal in the US & Afraid? Immigrate to Canada.”

But a hoax may have played a part in the growing number of Haitians arriving in Canada, with an erroneous message claiming that Canada was openly encouraging refugees from the impoverished nation to emigrate.

In the aftermath of a devastating 2010 earthquake, tens of thousands of Haitians living in the United States have been shielded from deportation by the government’s grant of temporary protected status.

In May the Trump administration decided to extend that protection for another six months. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made it clear at the time that the window for Haitians to remain was closing, saying in a statement that the six-month period should allow people to make “necessary arrangements for their ultimate departure from the United States.”