“I can’t leave my baby without something to eat. The government grant is $1300 and we pay $1500 in rent. We don’t even have enough to pay for the food. »
Posted at 6:00 am
When Danièle L’Écuyer, seven months after arriving in the country, read the desperate message from some Mexican asylum seekers without work permits, her mother’s heart sank. How long can they last?
Danièle is a retired nurse from Brossard who has become a rescue mother for asylum seekers1. For some time she has experienced situations of great need. And she asks herself a question: will it take tragedy for the government to understand the urgency of the situation?
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Daniele L’Ecuyer
With Danièle I visited Maria, Roberto* and their baby in their modest basement in Longueuil.
” Do you speak Spanish ?
“Not great, but it works.
– The same goes for me. »
With two people to guide us and a little help from the translator on our phone, we had no trouble understanding the nightmare that Maria and Roberto are going through, even though I didn’t know the word for nightmare in Spanish.
The young parents tell me that they had to flee Mexico in August 2022 because their lives were in danger there. They didn’t arrive by Roxham Road but by plane. They are very grateful to the government for giving them hope for a better life for their child. They want nothing better than to integrate, learn French and rebuild their lives.
But as they await their interview with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), scheduled for October 2023, they find themselves in a situation of extreme vulnerability, which unfortunately is very representative of the thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived in the country are in the last few months.
“We’re not alive. We’re just trying to survive,” Maria drops with distorted features.
A colorful banner reads Happy Birthday! on the wall of the dining room. left there after her son’s first birthday more than three weeks ago. The truth is, they don’t have the heart for the celebrations.
“If we can’t even eat, what do we do? asks Maria, almost in tears, and hugs her son.
Of course, fifteen hundred dollars in rent when the federal subsidy is only $1,300 as a last resort is too much. But they had no choice. In the midst of a housing crisis, the owner, himself an immigrant, is the only one who has accepted them as tenants while they are still waiting for their papers.
After offering them furniture and clothes, Danièle tries to help them find cheaper housing on the south coast.
The young parents go to the food bank run by the Action Nouvelle Vie organization in Longueuil for lunch. But they don’t even have enough to pay the $20 fee for a basket or the bus tickets to get there.
You think it could be worse. “We feel lucky because there are asylum seekers who don’t have Danièle. no furniture No clothes… Nothing. »
This “nothing” is no exaggeration. In community organizations, where requests for help have exploded since the summer without government support to follow, we have seen the arrival of more and more destitute people in recent months. “Situations of poverty and vulnerability that we have never seen before,” said Jérémie Olivier, spokesman for Action Nouvelle Vie.
New arrivals in sandals in the middle of winter with a baby under a simple blanket. Two families of four staying in a 4 ½ and sleeping on the floor…
Their stories follow each other and are similar. “These are people who want to work but can’t because their immigration deadline is 2024. You have no papers. We even have some who volunteer to join us while we wait. Venezuelans who walk an hour every day to volunteer because they want to learn French and integrate. »
Over time, the distress of asylum seekers increases. After a tough first winter in the country, Maria is so stressed that she wakes up one morning with a paralyzed face. Not being able to work to support themselves… Not knowing if they will have enough to support their child… Not knowing if they will find a legal aid lawyer for their asylum application… All of this undermines them in the end.
We are thankful for everything the country has given us. We don’t want more money. We just want a work permit.
Roberto, Mexican asylum seeker
How come it’s so long? What should these asylum seekers do to get their work permits as soon as possible?
“IRCC cannot comment on a specific case,” I am told.
On November 16, 2022, IRCC introduced a temporary fast track allowing asylum seekers to automatically obtain a work permit once their application is deemed admissible. I’m told it’s done 80% of the time, in five days or less.
In principle, the Fast Track also applies to those whose application was pending before November 16th.
In fact, many are in survival mode, on the fast track to despair.
A death? NO.
Reception capacity and respect for the rights and dignity of migrants depend on political will. We saw this clearly when Ukrainians fled the Russian invasion, notes Stephan Reichhold, director of the Round Table of organizations supporting refugees and immigrants. Last year, more than 133,000 Ukrainian nationals came to Canada under a special program that allows them to quickly live, work and study in the country on a temporary basis2.
“If asylum seekers had access to the same services as Ukrainians, we wouldn’t talk about it anymore. »
Faced with a global humanitarian crisis that will not go away if we close our eyes or if we close the doors, isn’t this the way to go?
*Names are fictitious, story is not.