(Ottawa) The cold that has begun to set in has not slowed down the rate at which asylum seekers pass through Roxham Road. In November, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers intercepted 3,731 people, slightly less than in October (3,901 people).
During the first 11 months of the year, federal authorities arrested a record number of 34,478 asylum seekers who crossed the Canada-US border irregularly, according to the latest data published on the ministry’s website. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. If the trend continues, we could approach the 40,000 asylum seekers who chose to cross the border via Roxham Road.
Since the beginning of the year, we have also seen an increase in the number of people claiming asylum after disembarking from the plane at Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau International Airport. Indeed, the federal authorities indicate that nearly 10,200 people made such a request at this airport between January and November.
Result: nearly 50,000 people will probably have applied for asylum after arriving in Quebec by a land or air port of entry, according to federal government data.
These data were released 24 hours after the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, raised this thorny issue during a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Montreal.
At the end of this meeting, Mr. Legault said he hoped that Ottawa would speed up the processing of the file of migrants who pass through Roxham Road and who are not political refugees. “We could return them to their homes,” he said at a press conference.
Mr. Legault also indicated that he would like some of these asylum seekers to be “transferred to other provinces”. He also argued to Mr. Trudeau that it was necessary to “stop the massive influx of immigrants” via Roxham Road. Currently, it can take two years for an asylum seeker’s case to be assessed in Ottawa, according to Premier Legault.
“I would rather we aim for two months than two years,” he said, lamenting, however, not having obtained a specific “target” from Justin Trudeau on Tuesday morning.
“We still have a good percentage of these people who arrive through Roxham who are not really political refugees within the meaning of the law: their life is not in danger in their country,” said Prime Minister Legault in point Press.
“People who are not political refugees, we could return them to their homes. It would take the pressure off services and francization.
François Legault nevertheless says he felt “an openness” from the federal prime minister so that some of these arrivals are “transferred to other provinces”.
“There is a certain urgency to act,” added Mr. Legault, who recalled the “challenge” of providing health, education and housing services to the 36,000 people who passed through. via Roxham Road this year.
In an afternoon report of the meeting, Prime Minister Trudeau’s office wrote “that the Government of Canada continue[ait] to support Quebec” in managing “the arrival of irregular asylum seekers entering via Roxham Road”.
With Marie-Eve Morasse, The Press