By Canadian Press

Asylum figures show overall slower rate of irregular crossings

Jul 15, 2019 | 4:12 PM

OTTAWA — Newly published government figures show fewer asylum-seekers crossing “irregularly” into Canada than last year, although June did see a small increase over other months this year.

Last month, RCMP officers intercepted 371 more migrants trying to cross into Canada from the United States between official border checkpoints compared to May.

June of this year also saw a small increase of over 300 irregular crossings compared to the same month of last year.

Conservative border critics Michelle Rempel and Pierre Paul-Hus say they believe this shows the numbers of irregular migrants arriving in Canada are “on the rise.”

But the overall totals show a downward trend this year versus last.

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Between January and June 2019, a total of 6,707 asylum seekers crossed irregularly into Canada, a 38-per-cent drop compared to the same period in 2018.

June was the first month in all of 2019 in which the numbers of irregular border crossers was higher than in the same month the year before.

The Canadian Press