U.S. to return Canada-bound asylum seekers stopped at border to home nations

FILE PHOTO: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) confront asylum seekers as they cross the border from New York into Canada at Roxham Road, in Hemmingford, Quebec, Canada March 19, 2020. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo

TORONTO (Reuters) - After years of asylum-seekers crossing the Canada-U.S. border illegally to file refugee claims, Canada is turning them around and sending them back to the United States, which says it plans to send them swiftly back to their countries of origin.

Canada said last week it will no longer accept irregular migrants trying to cross the shared border with the United States and will instead return them to U.S. authorities, as a temporary measure amid the coronavirus outbreak.