22 migrants flee US to seek asylum in Canada

TIL Desk/World/Ottawa-At least 22 migrants fled the United States for Canada over the weekend, sneaking across the border in Manitoba province to request asylum, authorities said today.  Twenty-two people, mostly from Africa, crossed the border on foot overnight Saturday into Sunday, said Greg Janzen, a local official in the city of Emerson. Eight others had arrived on Friday.

Emerson, 120 kilometers south of Winnipeg and close to the US states of North Dakota and Minnesota, has seen the porous border — in many areas with no official crossings — drawing greater numbers of asylum seekers since US President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

The Republican took office in January and promptly signed an order to temporarily ban US entry for nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries, and for all refugees. Under a bilateral agreement, asylum-seekers from the United States are usually turned back at Canada’s border crossings.

But this does not apply to those crossing the border illegally in other places. Migrants who crossed into Canada in early February faced harsh, frigid conditions: two had their hands frozen and needed to have several fingers amputated.  But temperatures were much milder this past weekend.