NEW YORK, Jan 3: Fearing reprisals and deportations in the face of US Immigration registration deadline drawing near, hundreds of Pakistanis have crossed into Canada seeking political asylum, several Pakistani families said on Friday.

“There has been an increase in the number of asylum seekers at our border posts,” a spokesperson for Canadian foreign office, Nancy Duarte, told Dawn on telephone.

Ms Duarte said: “We (Canada) are committed to doing bet in providing protection to those in need and our commitment to refugees is unwavering.”

On Monday, Usman Ghani, 23-year-old a business and finance student at New Jersey’s Keane University crossed at Canadian border near Montreal and sought political asylum. His case is microcosm of the state of uncertainty facing the Pakistani immigrants in US.

Ghani, who has legal status in the United States since his father, a Pakistani newsman, came to the United States eight years ago. He was given (I) visa meant for working journalists. But his stay at the university became insecure when some of his peers threatened him with dire consequences. Already his uncle, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, had been killed by an American extremist and his father was a victim of similar attack in New Jersey.

Ghani said that while he was at the Canadian border in Plattsburg (New York) he met at least 80 Pakistani immigrants who had crossed into Canada seeking political asylum.

The Montreal crossing is one of the border crossings between US and Canada from where hundreds more Muslims were reportedly crossing daily into Canada.

Many asylum seekers had been provided temporary housing and money for the stay until their cases were heard.