(Montreal) Quebec Immigration Minister Jean Boulet on Monday welcomed Ottawa’s decision to relocate about 100 asylum seekers who entered the province irregularly, but said it was not enough.
Updated yesterday at 6:40pm.
Virginie Ann The Canadian Press
Quebec says its ability to house and care for potential refugees is under pressure as about 13,350 people entered Canada irregularly between January and May, mostly via the Roxham Road, a rural route that runs from the United States to Quebec.
“Quebec requires that a significant portion of asylum-seekers crossing the border be rerouted to other provinces,” Mr Boulet said in a written statement, calling the aforementioned transfer to Ontario “a step in the right direction.”
“However, we are talking about a hundred people, which equates to one to two days of daily passage through Roxham. It is therefore not sufficient. Ottawa needs to find permanent solutions quickly to facilitate these transfers and ensure asylum seekers use the official entry points at the border,” added Mr Boulet.
Since June 30, Ottawa has begun moving a “small number” of asylum seekers to Ottawa and Niagara Falls to ease pressure on Quebec, a spokesman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said Monday, without giving details to name.
“The exact number of refugee applicants who have subsequently traveled to Ontario is not final at this time,” Aidan Strickland said in an email.
Roxham Road remains the main entry point for the majority of asylum seekers entering Canada irregularly, Strickland said.
“A lot of these people have no intention of staying in (Quebec),” he noted.
More than double the number of people intercepted in three years
The number of people intercepted by border officials outside of official entry points into Quebec between January and May is more than double the number of people intercepted in the same period in 2019 before ports of entry into Canada were closed due to Covid19 Pandemic. Roxham Road reopened to potential refugees in November 2021.
Prime Minister François Legault has urged the federal government to close Roxham Road as rising numbers of asylum seekers put pressure on Quebec’s ability to accommodate new arrivals.
Canada’s Border Protection Agency has announced that it has increased its temporary accommodation capacity for asylum seekers at the Roxham Road border crossing from 297 to 477 people.
“These structures are not used for residential purposes, but to ensure adequate and comfortable short-term waiting space,” the agency said in a written statement.
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