Friday's announcement came as US President Joe Biden visited Canada’s capital Ottawa to discuss a series of economic, trade, and immigration issues with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

A new United States-Canada border deal aimed at halting the flow of asylum seekers through unofficial border crossings has come into effect.

Migrants caught crossing anywhere along the 3,145 miles (5,060km) shared land border at Roxham Road, a dirt path between New York state and the province of Quebec where large numbers of unsanctioned crossings have been recorded, can now be sent back.

The new accord announced Friday closes a loophole that allowed migrants to claim asylum at such unofficial ports of entry.

The deal is part of efforts to limit the flow of migrants at Roxham Road, an unofficial border crossing that has become a route of choice for asylum-seekers hoping to enter Canada from the US in what is known as irregular crossings due to the absence of an official border checkpoint.

A record number of migrants, some 40,000, crossed into Canada last year – the vast majority of which entered at Roxham Road.

As part of the agreement, Canada will also create a new refugee programme for 15,000 migrants fleeing persecution and violence in South and Central America, the prime minister’s office (PMO) said.

The new deal is an amendment to both countries’ 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which requires migrants to make an asylum claim in the first “safe” country they reach, whether it is the US or Canada.

The original STCA allowed either country to turn migrants away at official points of entry but prevented them from doing so at unofficial crossing points, like Roxham Road.

The new deal, criticised by refugee advocates as ineffective in ending the irregular crossing of migrants into Canada, now extends the agreement along the entire border, including internal waterways, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

While in Canada, US President Joe Biden also spoke of the importance of the deep economic ties and the defence alliances between both countries, as well as their joint support for Ukraine.

Also discussed was the ongoing instability in Haiti, where there is an economic crisis, gang violence, as well as a sharp rise in kidnappings. The US has pushed Canada to lead an international force to support security forces in the Caribbean country.

Biden said at a Friday joint press conference that the instability in Haiti “is a real, genuine concern,” as ongoing gang violence could leave a large number of Haitians displaced.

Both countries also announced they will lead a new “global coalition” on the opioid crisis that will look to tackle the issue of drug trafficking not only in North America, but across the world.