Irregular land crossings, including the roxham roadhave dropped drastically in Quebec since the tightening of the border. But the number of asylum seekers arriving by air continues to rise, to the point where 2023 could hit a similar high to 2022 if the trend continues.
The federal government has again rented rooms to accommodate them in at least one hotel, confirm actors in the field. For them, this new increase demonstrates that the “closure” of Roxham Road “has not solved anything”: the two levels of government have still not taken any lasting measures, they say, in a context where the increase in asylum seekers is a global phenomenon.
In total, last June, 4,620 asylum applications were recorded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) and the Border Services Agency (CBSA), the two federal authorities responsible. This is barely 20 less than for the month of June 2022, when 4,640 requests were registered.
Of these, a majority arrived by plane: they applied for asylum on the spot at the airport or even in an IRCC office after a certain time, according to available data breakdown.
There are thus approximately 31,000 asylum seekers for the first 5 months of 2023 in Quebec. If the rate of adding more than 4,000 per month continues, the 2022 level will be reached, or just over 58,000 in total.
These arrivals are made through regular channels, unlike previous years, when up to two out of three applicants came through irregular channels, especially Roxham Road.
Arriving through regular or irregular channels, a person has the right to seek asylum in Canada if they fear persecution in their country of origin.
Regardless of the point of entry, these asylum seekers also often have accommodation needs, recalls organizations, which deplore the lack of “lasting solutions”, says Eva Gracia-Turgeon, director general of the Foyer du monde.
Lack of communication
At least one hotel in Brossard has started to house asylum seekers who have recently arrived. At the peak of arrivals via Roxham Road, Ottawa managed beds for more than 2,500 people in Quebec. IRCC, responsible for these accommodations, has not been able to confirm how many places have been released at this time.
Asylum seekers are already knocking on the doors of organizations on their own, for lack of services at their place of temporary residence.
“To our surprise, the hotel was reopened by the federal government, but we were not notified,” says Mame Moussa Sy, general manager at the Maison internationale de la Rive-Sud (MIRS). This organization is located “literally four minutes on foot” from the hotel in Brossard.
“We have not been informed by the federal government, but we see them, people. We had to improvise to start accompanying them. We spoke to other organizations in the region, too,” explains Mr. Sy. He would like better coordination, especially from the authorities, he laments.
The houses of the Foyer du monde are also full. “We just shifted the issue. It is normal that there are more people passing by the plane, because unfortunately, there are no other means of applying for asylum”, notes Mme Gracia-Turgeon.
She also believes that the increase will be felt even more in the coming weeks and in the fall, because her organization is in a way second in line, after emergency accommodation. “For me, it’s also proof that ‘closing’ Roxham was not a solution,” she said.
Armed conflicts and climate change continue to push millions of people to leave their country of origin, recalls the community director: “You have to plan for the future, this is only the beginning. »
Last winter, the community sector launched a cry from the heart for better support and better coordination. The government had then released 3.5 million dollars in emergency aid. “But it was a plaster and, since then, no measures have been put in place by the governments”, she regrets.
“We are in a global movement,” also observes Stephan Reichhold, director of the Roundtable of organizations serving refugees and immigrants (TCRI). He is therefore not surprised by this “recovery” of arrivals. The TCRI wants to see more services for all asylum seekers, including those housed by the federal government.
“You have the impression that you always have to start over” in terms of needs and the search for resources, says Mr. Reichhold.
Elsewhere in the country
The phenomenon is also clearly visible in Toronto, where dozens of people have been forced to sleep on the streets for lack of space in the city’s shelters.
Ontario also surpassed the number of arrivals on this date last year, with 21,480 asylum claims between January and June 2023, compared to 11,350 in 2022.
It must be said that the shelter system of about 9,000 places in Toronto welcomes both homeless people and those seeking refugee status. The neighboring province does not have a mechanism like Quebec with its Regional Program for the Reception and Integration of Asylum Seekers (PRAIDA), funded mostly with money from Ottawa.
The number of new people housed at PRAIDA has dropped slightly since the amendments to the Safe Third Country Agreement, which further sealed the border. In June, 1,112 new people came to PRAIDA, which has a total capacity of 1,150 places.
Possible causes
Arrivals by plane had already been a phenomenon present since 2022, even if little put forward in political discourse. While the Prime Minister Francois Legault asked to “close” Roxham Road on several occasions last winter, The duty revealed in March that the majority asylum seekers in provincially run accommodation had arrived by plane.
The majority of them were then Mexicans, but since then their origins have diversified. Since 2016, these nationals no longer need to hold a visa to visit Canada. Mexico continues to be the first country of origin of people hosted by PRAIDA, but there are also Senegal, Cameroon, Colombia and Haiti in this list.
Some changes to obtain a visitor visa have been put in place recently, but IRCC could not confirm to the Duty if they were linked to this increase. Several travelers from 13 countries who previously required a visa can now apply for a simple electronic travel authorization, a quick process that costs just $7.
A public policy has also been put in place to expedite the processing of such visas. It allows officers to waive certain requirements for visit requests made before January 16, 2022.