CANADA - Mexico has been the top source for refugees to Canada for the last four years straight, the Globe and Mail reported this week.

In an extensive article, the Toronto-based newspaper said that record numbers of Mexicans are trying to flee the drug war to seek a better life in the Great White North.

One-third of all Canadian refugee claims now come from Mexico. the Globe and Mail said. But only 11 percent are accepted, compared to the national average of 34 percent.

With Canada signing on to the U.N. Convention for Refugees, Mexico has posed a substantial problem for Canadian immigration officials trying to decipher which of the cases are genuine and which are made up. Some 9,000 Mexicans are currently waiting to have their case heard.

The paper notes that Mexicans don’t need a visa to travel to Canada and can make their claims at Canadian customs because the Canadian-U.S. Third Country Agreement exempts them from having to seek asylum in the first country they can reach. It is the relative ease with which Mexicans can make it to Canada and Canada’s benevolent reputation that lead to so many Mexican refugee claimants.