Canada is going backwards. After procrastinating for a long time, Justin Trudeau’s government announced Thursday, February 29, that it would reimpose visas on Mexicans who wish to enter the country. This requirement was lifted in December 2016.
Faced with the explosion in the number of asylum requests from Mexican nationals, the Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, defended at a press conference that it was a question of preserving “the viability of the immigration system. Asylum and Immigration” Canadian.
However, certain exemptions will be applied: Mexican citizens traveling to Canada will be able to request a simple electronic travel authorization if they have held a Canadian visa in the last decade or if they have a valid American visa.
According to the Canadian government, Mexicans made up 17% of all asylum applications in 2023: For the first eleven months of 2023, Canada received 22,365 applications, a hundred times more than in 2015. Most were rejected or withdrawn by the applicants. “We value our close ties with Mexico. Mexico is and will remain an important partner,” insisted the minister, specifying that the Mexican government had already expressed its dissatisfaction with this change.
Ottawa has been under pressure on this subject for weeks, in particular from the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault. The latter believes that his province has reached a breaking point in terms of immigration and is overwhelmed by asylum requests.
