Canada will once again ask Mexicans for visas due to the increase in asylum applications

Canada will once again ask for visas from citizens of Mexico.

This was reported by Canadian public television (CBC), which quotes senior officials, who justified the measure given the increase in asylum applications in recent months.

The Government of Justin Trudeau contemplates a partial scheme, in which Mexican visitors who already have a visa for the United States are exempt from the requirement, sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to EL PAÍS.

The entry into force is scheduled to begin Thursday at 11:30 p.m. (Eastern time), according to CBC.

The measure has not been officially communicated, but its implementation is practically a fact, according to the sources consulted by this newspaper.

Those who already have a visa for the United States will only need to process the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), the entry permit for short visits and tourism or business trips.

The ETA is a requirement for anyone entering that country. It costs seven Canadian dollars (120 Mexican pesos) and is valid for five years after being issued.

Four out of every ten Mexican travelers, government sources said, would be affected by the new requirement.

The imposition of the visa responds to internal pressures due to the arrival of asylum seekers who arrive as tourists at Canadian airports.

In January, Quebec Premier François Legault sent a letter to Trudeau demanding he take action on the surge in applications.

“The ability to enter Canada from Mexico without a visa certainly explains part of the influx of asylum seekers,” Legault said.

More than 25,000 Mexicans requested asylum last year, according to official figures.

Less than 3,000 petitions have been approved, about 2,500 were rejected and another 28,000 are still pending and have not yet been released into Canada's foster care system.

In 2022 there were fewer than 7,500 applications from Mexicans, around a quarter of those requested a year later.

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, threatened this Wednesday to absent himself from the North American Leaders Summit next April, amid new diplomatic tensions with the governments of the United States and Canada.

“If there is no respectful treatment, I will not participate,” the president concluded in his daily press conference.

The diplomatic meeting with Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden is expected to be held precisely in Quebec.

“We have acted generously with them with the Government of Prime Minister Trudeau, but they were already on the verge of applying unilateral measures,” said López Obrador, regarding immigration frictions with Canada.

The Mexican president had already announced last week that Trudeau had put the immigration issue on the table since the end of last year and that both governments were looking for a negotiated solution.

“There have been several meetings and we are already taking measures and an agreement is being sought with Canada,” said the president.

“There is an increase in asylum applications and we have to see if they are really people who require it or if it is a means to enter Canada,” he added.

The new visa imposition comes, however, with a certain amount of surprise and after almost eight years without a similar measure having been adopted.

It remains to be seen whether Mexico, Canada's third trading partner, will apply reciprocal measures.

In 2016, the Trudeau Government relaxed the requirements imposed by its predecessor, the conservative Stephen Harper, who had reinstated visas for Mexican visitors in 2009. The argument then was the same as the one now: the increase in asylum applications and the use of public resources to manage requests.

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