7 'irregular' border crossings into Sask. attempted this year, RCMP report

Asylum seekers are coming to Saskatchewan, but not nearly in the numbers officials are seeing in Manitoba and Quebec.

Public Safety Canada saidofficials haveintercepted seven people who tried to crossthe border "irregularly" meaning somewhere otheran official border crossing into Saskatchewan so far this year.

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Five of the incidents happened in January and two this March.

RCMP confirmed that theincidents in Januaryinvolved a family of five attempting to cross the border into Canada. The family was intercepted by United States border patrol personneland did not make their way across the border.

The United States Border Patrol is part of the Integrated Border Enforcement team, as is the RCMP.

The five people remainunder U.S. jurisdiction.

It'sagainst the law for anyone citizen or not to cross the border into Canada somewhere other than an official point of entry.

The government didn't say whether any of the seven made refugee claims, or how those people crossed the border.

It's also not clear whether these crossings are of the same nature asthe illegal border crossings happening in larger numbers inother provinces.

But CBC has been told Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada processed two inland asylum claims in Saskatchewan in the first two months of 2017.

• Read full coverage ofrefugeescrossing the U.S. border into Manitoba

Spike in asylum claims

The number of asylum claims at bordersin Saskatchewan is historically much lower than Manitoba's, with only a handful of claims inmost years since 2011.

Last year, however, there was a spike, with 29 claims at the border.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the focus of attention now is on Emerson, Man., and Lacolle, Que.

"There have been minor incidents elsewhere but nothing of any statistical consequence," Goodale said Tuesday.