The authorities confirmed yesterday that around 7,000 asylum seekers have been stopped at the Quebec-U.S. border in the last six weeks.
The force intercepted more than 3,800 people between Aug. 1 and 15, while the nearly 3,000 in July were almost quadruple the 781 from June, says Claude Castonguay of RCMP.
The vast majority of asylum seekers — between 80 and 85 per cent — are Haitians.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesman Louis Dumas said in a briefing in Lacolle that many of those people are being lured to Canada with false information about what awaits.