Posted at 5:00 am.
1. Flow increases
Available data covering the first eight months of 2023 confirms this trend: Canada welcomed 81,171 applicants, compared to 53,450 in the same period of 2022.
Analysis of monthly data also shows that the closure of Roxham Road did not actually slow the influx. At the beginning of 2023, the total number of monthly asylum applications in Canada reached about 10,000 due to the approximately 4,000 entries per month through this access. After falling to 6,885 in April and 8,840 in May, applications subsequently rose again, reaching a record 12,620 in August.
Therefore, Canada’s absorption capacity remains in demand and the pressure on resources remains great.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The YMCA on Tupper Street in downtown Montreal is full.
The Quebec government’s reception program, PRAIDA, with a capacity of 1,150 places in two accommodation locations, is always fully booked at 100% occupancy.
On the federal side, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) rented 810 rooms in 10 hotels in the Montreal region in early September to accommodate asylum seekers.
2. Your journey
Even if the number of potential refugees has not decreased, the options for entering Canada have changed. RCMP interceptions, which took place almost entirely in Quebec because of Roxham Road, fell from more than 4,000 per month at the start of the year to around 50 per month starting in April.
However, air inputs have increased explosively, from around 1,500 per month at the beginning of the year to 3,970 in July and 3,220 in August.
These asylum seekers arriving by plane are not people who simply changed their mode of transport to enter Canada because land routes were no longer accessible: they come from other countries. This route therefore does not replace that of Roxham Road, particularly as it became operational in early 2022 and increased from 740 in January last year to 2040 in December.
In other words, if Roxham Road had remained open, thousands of refugees would most likely still have been using it, and Canada would have had to accept 30,000 or 40,000 more refugees this year.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Ousseynou NDiaye, director of An itinerary for all, in Montreal North
“We thought we would get some respite but nothing has changed because tourist visa holders are becoming asylum seekers. This time it is not on the side of Haiti, but of French-speaking Africa,” explains Ousseynou NDiaye, director of the organization Un route pour tous based in northern Montreal.
3. Your origins
The countries of birth of these new applicants are no longer the same. A year ago, nationals from Mexico, Haiti and Colombia dominated. Nowadays they come a lot from Africa. According to PRAIDA, the countries of birth, in order of importance, are Mexico, Congo-Kinshasa, Chad and Senegal.
For Mexicans, traveling by plane is made easier because they can enter Canada without a visa. In contrast to people who entered the country irregularly, those who come from African countries have a visa.
In general, their profile is not the same as that of people who crossed the American continent before arriving irregularly in Canada. According to Stephan Reichhold, director of the Table de Concertation des Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants (TCRI), there are fewer children, fewer families and more people with more resources.
We are also seeing the growth of another sector, namely asylum seekers who do not report to the Border Services Agency of Canada (CBSA) when entering the country, whether on foot, by plane or by car, but rather Apply for IRCC once on Canadian territory. Their numbers are increasing rapidly. From an average of 2,000 per month in 2022, it rose to 7,985 in the month of August alone.
4. Your base
The closure of Roxham Road, which was the main gateway for asylum seekers into Canada, accounting for 45% of the total number of asylum seekers, had another very significant impact. Quebec is no longer their main base.
In 2022, of a total of 91,760 asylum seekers, including all entry modes, 64%, or almost two-thirds, landed in Quebec, compared to 26,505 in Ontario, the second largest destination country, or 29%.
But things have changed since April. In the months following Roxham, from April to August, of the 50,560 asylum seekers in Canada, 24,185 applied in Ontario, or 48%. This makes the neighboring province the main location for admission, ahead of Quebec, which, with 21,105 applicants, only accounts for 42% of the Canadian total.
5. The meaning of the passages
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Only two orange cones guard Roxham Road, noted La Presse.
La Presse went to Roxham Road and found the RCMP facilities abandoned. Only two orange cones guard the dirt road that separates the United States from Quebec.
And most importantly, there is no cat guarding the border and stopping migrants from entering Canada illegally. For what ? Because the frequently used expression “close Roxham Road” is not entirely correct. We didn’t actually close the trail, but rather ended the special status it enjoyed. When migrants try to use it, they will no longer be greeted by the RCMP and CBSA as before. They will be arrested and deported to the United States unless they meet one of the exceptions to the Safe Third Country Agreement. Therefore, very few people dare to take on the adventure.
The tents have already been dismantled and work to demolish the main building will begin on Monday.
“We continue to intercept migrants entering the country illegally, but throughout our territory in Quebec,” specifies Sergeant Charles Poirier of the RCMP communications office. We are also intercepting increasing numbers of migrants heading in the opposite direction, from Canada to the US. »
In fact, the number of intercepted migrants attempting to enter the United States illegally is increasing. “More than 6,100 apprehensions from 76 different countries in just 11 months, more than in the last 10 years combined,” US Border Patrol Swanton Sector Chief Robert Garcia wrote on the social network in early September.
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32.2% average approval rate for applications submitted by Mexicans to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) since 2017.
Source: Government of Canada