MONTREAL: Most of the hundreds of people streaming over the US border into Canada in recent weeks are asylum-seekers, coming fr­om Syria, Yemen, Turkey or Sud­an, according to the United Nations’ refugee point man in the country.

In an interview, Jean-Nicolas Beuze, the represent­ative in Canada of the Uni­t­ed Nations High Comm­issioner for Refugees, said it was too soon to know whet­her the cross-border flow of people is an uptick or signals a longer trend.

The UNHCR led a mission to the border at Lacolle, about 70 kilometres south of Montreal, and the surrounding area, where entire families have been trekking with suitcases and strollers along Roxham Road that connects to the United States.

The UN mission was coordinated with the border police and the Royal Cana­dian Mounted Police.

For weeks, people have be­en braving bone-chilling cold to walk across the US bo­r­d­er, trudging through snow-covered prairies in the dead of night to make a claim in Canada.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2017