The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration announced yesterday that they have removed the exception that allowed individuals from countries under a temporary suspension of removals (TSR) coming through the Canada-US land border to make a refugee claim in Canada.

Unless they qualify for another exception under the Safe Third Country Agreement, nationals from TSR countries (Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq and Zimbabwe) arriving at a Canada-US land border will be ineligible to make a refugee claim in Canada and will be turned back to the United States.

It is important to note that nationals from these countries already in Canada or arriving at a port of entry that is not a land border with the US will not be affected by this measure and will continue to have access to Canada’s asylum system.

This change was announced on July 23^rd, 2009 and takes effect immediately.