MONTREAL: Canada has deployed soldiers to erect tents near the US border to temporarily house hundreds of asylum seekers crossing from New York state, officials said on Wednesday, an influx of mostly Haitians prompted by fear of deportation by the US government.
Around 250 asylum seekers are arriving each day in Montreal, the largest city in Canada’s mainly French-speaking Quebec province. Quebec has opened its Olympic Stadium, a former hospital and a school among other places to house people.
Heated tents will accommodate up to 500 people as Canadian border officials process mainly Haitians walking into Canada from the United States.
Nearly 100 soldiers will be in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, across the border from Champlain, New York, to set up the tents and add to temporary facilities already organized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Border Services Agency.
The Canadian Armed Forces were aware of the difficult situation that requires significant resources, said Daniel Le Bouthillier, a spokesman at the Department of National Defense.
The military would have no role in security matters, Le Bouthillier said in e-mailed statement. “When the site is completed, the military will return to their home base.”
Hundreds of Haitians have crossed into Quebec in recent weeks, spurred partly by false accounts of asylum seekers being able to immediately obtain residency after entering Canada.
“There is an enormous amount of fake information circulating saying that it is easy to come to Canada,” said Marjorie Villefranche, general manager of Maison d’Haiti, a Montreal community center that assists Haitian immigrants.
“They are hearing that Canada doesn’t deport people.”
The Canadian immigration ministry, on its Facebook page on Aug. 5, discouraged illegal entries and noted that messages posted elsewhere online suggesting that Canada is inviting people to seek refugee status were wrong.
Canadian authorities accepted 50.5 percent of the 410 refugee claims by Haitians heard in 2016, government data showed.
Like the United States, Canada had a deportation ban on Haitians after a 2010 earthquake. More than 50,000 people affected by Haiti’s earthquake have been allowed to remain in the United States under “temporary protected status” according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
This year, the department extended their status through next January, but officials said in May that people covered under that status should begin acquiring travel documents to return to Haiti.
Canada’s deportation ban, which was enacted after a 2004 coup and extended after the earthquake, expired in August 2016. Many Haitians who had been living in Canada for years have since raced to get permanent residency on humanitarian or compassionate grounds.
In the first half of 2017, more than 4,300 asylum seekers walked across the US border into Canada. Even before the flow of Haitian asylum seekers Canada was on track to have the most refugee claims in almost a decade.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has taken a tougher stance on immigration with plans to cut legal immigration by 50 percent over 10 years.
Canada to set up border camp as number of asylum seekers swells
Canada to set up border camp as number of asylum seekers swells
German court backs intelligence agency’s designation of far-right party as suspected extremist case
- The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court
The administrative court in Muenster ruled in favor of the BfV intelligence agency, upholding a 2022 decision by a lower court in Cologne, German news agency dpa reported. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has rejected the designation strongly.
The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court.
AfD was formed in 2013 and has moved steadily to the right over the years. Its platform initially centered on opposition to bailouts for struggling eurozone members, but its vehement opposition to then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow in large numbers of refugees and other migrants in 2015 established the party as a significant political force.
AfD has been polling strongly in Germany in recent months as discontent is high with center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government.
However, its support declined somewhat following a media report in January that extremists met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that some figures from the party attended. The report triggered mass protests in the country against the rise of the far-right.
Two Americans, one Russian citizen among 20 detained in Georgia, Russia’s TASS reports
- 20 people detained at protests in Tbilisi while Georgian lawmakers were debating a “foreign agents” bill
Tbilisi: Some 1,000 protesters stood firm outside parliament in Georgia on Monday, vowing not to back down in their fight against a Russia-styled “foreign agent” bill, a day before it’s due to be adopted.
Protests have gripped the small Caucasus nation for weeks over the bill, which critics say will erode democracy and derail the ex-Soviet republic’s long-held ambition of joining the European Union.
Critics say the measure, which resembles one Russia has used to crack down on dissent, will steer Tbilisi back under Moscow’s influence.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has portrayed it as necessary for Georgia’s sovereignty, saying it will boost transparency of civil groups’ funding.
The bill is due to go for a third and final reading in parliament on Tuesday.
On Monday, it passed a committee vote, a final step before it goes for a vote in parliament.
The bill targets NGOs that receive foreign funding, with Georgian Dream’s billionaire backer Bidzina Ivanishvili accusing them of working on foreign orders and plotting a revolution.
Part of Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue was closed off around parliament on Monday.
Hundreds of riot police officers lined a street behind parliament, and some scuffles broke out between them and protesters.
Authorities a day earlier warned that they would arrest people who blocked parliament, but thousands defied the warning and came to the parliament’s gates anyway.
“We are planning to stay here for as long as it takes,” 22-year-old Mariam Kalandadze told AFP.
“This law means not joining Europe,” she said, adding that “this is something that I have wanted my whole life.”
Russia downs 16 Ukraine-launched missiles, 31 drones
- Russian defense ministry: 12 guided missiles were launched from a Ukrainian Vilkha multiple rocket launcher
- Four Storm Shadow aircraft guided missiles and seven drones were downed over Crimea
The Russian defense ministry said on Monday its air defense systems destroyed 16 missiles and 31 drones that Ukraine launched at Russian territory overnight, including 12 missiles over the battered border region of Belgorod.
Five houses were damaged in Belgorod, but according to preliminary information, there were no injuries, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
On Sunday, 15 people were killed in Belgorod when a section of an apartment block collapsed after being struck by fragments of a Soviet-era missile, launched by Ukraine and shot down by Russian forces, Russia said.
The Russian defense ministry said on Monday the 12 guided missiles were launched from a Ukrainian Vilkha multiple rocket launcher.
The ministry also said four Storm Shadow aircraft guided missiles and seven drones were downed over Crimea, eight drones were destroyed over the Kursk region and four were intercepted over the Lipetsk region.
A drone sparked a short-lived fire at an electrical substation in the Kursk region, Igor Artamonov, the governor of the region in Russia’s south, wrote on Telegram.
“There are no casualties. The fire in the territory of the electrical substation is being extinguished,” Artamonov said.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv says that targeting Russia’s military, transport and energy infrastructure undermines Moscow’s war effort and is an answer to the countless deadly attacks by Russia.
Western Canada blazes cause evacuations, air quality concerns
- Authorities issued an evacuation order for a community in British Columbia and warn of poor air quality across provinces
TORONTO: The season’s first major wildfires have spread to roughly 10,000 hectares across Western Canada on Sunday as authorities issued an evacuation order for a community in British Columbia and warned of poor air quality across provinces.
In British Columbia, thousands of residents in Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and Fort Nelson First Nations were evacuated as the nearby blaze nearly doubled to 4,136 hectares.
Northern Rockies Regional Municipality Mayor Rob Fraser in a TV interview said most of the 3,500 residents in and around Fort Nelson had been evacuated.
Fort Nelson First Nation, seven kilometers from the town, also issued an evacuation order for Fontas, an Indigenous community.
Across the border in Alberta, residents of Fort McMurray, an oil hub which suffered extensive damage from wildfires in 2016, were asked to prepare to leave.
However, by the end of the day, favorable weather helped by a shower forecast tamed fire growth at Fort McMurray. Authorities said they expected fire activity to remain low with more showers expected on Monday.
Alberta continued to stress the two wildfires were extreme and out of control and recorded 43 active fires, including one located 16km southwest of Fort McMurray. By Sunday, authorities revised the area affected by fire to 6,579 hectares, much larger than what was reported on Friday.
Fraser said the fire was started by a tree blown down by strong winds falling onto a power line.
Six crews of wildland firefighters, 13 helicopters and airtankers were taming the fire on Sunday, said Alberta authorities.
Evacuation alerts were in place for Fort McMurray, Saprae Creek Estates and expanded to Gregoire Lake Estates and Rickards Landing Industrial Park.
Although there is no immediate risk to these communities, the alert ensures residents are prepared to evacuate if conditions change.
Smoke in Fort McMurray on Saturday was coming from fires in northern British Columbia, Alberta said.
Environment Canada issued a special air quality statement that extends from British Columbia to Ontario on Sunday.
Last year, a veil of smoke blanketed the US East Coast, tinging the skies a fluorescent orange as smoke reached parts of Europe as hundreds of forest fires burnt millions of acres of land and forced about 120,000 people to leave their homes.
The federal government has warned Canada faces another “catastrophic” wildfire season as it forecast higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country, boosted by El Nino weather conditions.
Canada experienced one of its warmest winters with low to non-existent snow in many areas, raising fears ahead of a hot summer triggering blazes in forests and wildlands amid an ongoing drought.
India to sign 10-year pact with Iran for Chabahar port management— report
- India has been developing port to transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia to avoid Karachi
- Sanctions imposed by Washington on Iran have slowed down Chabahar port’s development work
NEW DELHI: India is likely to sign an agreement with Iran on Monday to manage the southeastern Iranian port of Chabahar for the next 10 years, the Economic Times reported.
India Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is likely to travel to Iran to sign the agreement, the report said, citing unidentified sources.
The Indian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
India has been developing a part of the port in Chabahar, which is located on Iran’s southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman, as a way to transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan and central Asian countries that avoids the port of Karachi in its rival Pakistan.
US sanctions on Iran, however, have slowed down the port’s development.
