Mexican Government Working On Canada's Complaint Over High Number Of Asylum Requests

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that his administration is working towards Canada's complaint of receiving a higher number of asylum requests from Mexican citizens.

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Commission data showed that Mexicans made 17,500 asylum requests between January to September 2023. Whereas, Haitians made the second-highest number of requests with more than 8,500 applications.

"We are dealing with it, he [Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] raised it with me in San Francisco, in the bilateral meeting we held, that they had that concern," the president said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

He added, "There is an increase in asylum requests and we have to see if they are really people who require asylum or if it is a means to enter Canada."

Canadian Prime Minister met his counterpart at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum summit in November last year.

Obrador noted that Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena and her Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly have had several meetings regarding this issue. However, the president didn't provide any further details about the meetings.

Trudeau said last week that Canada's capital, Ottawa was in talks with Mexico City to work on reducing the number of asylum requests by Mexicans, adding that some Mexicans receive support from organized criminal groups to reach Canadian territory.

However, the Canadian prime minister did not mention any criminal organizations that he believes are behind this migration of Mexicans.

"We're in conversations with Mexico about making sure that the number of asylum seekers, some of them supported by organized crime in Mexico to come up to Canada, are reduced," he said last week, as per National Post.

He added, "A lot of the challenges are because things have happened in other areas than the permanent residents that we've welcomed in."

While Trudeau encouraged immigration, he said it is an important responsibility of the government to ensure that "Canadians themselves remain strong and positive and confident about immigration because it's one of the huge advantages we have."

As far as condition in Mexico is concerned, earlier this week tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in cities across Mexico and abroad, protesting against the ruling party and the president as they demanded free and fair elections in the country.