Since the start of 2017, more than 30,000 people “- many of them driven by fears of Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants – have entered Canada at unmarked locations along the border,” writes the Guardian’s Ashifa Kassam.

“t was once a vital corridor for Americans seeking to escape slavery. Now a stretch of land in the north-eastern US is in the spotlight again, as thousands traipse across the world’s longest undefended border in search of asylum in Canada,” writes Kassam.

At the same time, a small number of Canada’s politicians “have seized on the soaring number of asylum seekers, stoking fears about those crossing the border,” reports Kassam.