The situation at Roxham Road is unsustainable, says the Quebec government, which is asking for the second time in less than five months that the federal government close the border crossing.
The Department of Immigration anticipates that at the current rate, 35,000 asylum seekers will show up at the border this year. It is too much, in the eyes of Quebec. “We want that [les passages] are done in an orderly, regular and legal manner. We have reached a stage where we exceed our capacities, ”said Immigration Minister Jean Boulet on Wednesday.
By asking for an end to asylum applications in the south of Montérégie, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) joins the arguments of the Parti Québécois, which has been asking since the beginning of the week for the situation to be resolved. On Wednesday, the Liberal Party of Quebec and Quebec solidaire instead demanded that Ottawa renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement, which governs asylum requests in Canada and the United States.
In December, Minister Boulet took to Twitter to ask Ottawa to “take responsibility” in the face of the rise in COVID-19 cases. According to him, the irregular passages in Roxham threatened the stability of the health network. “We must all mobilize in the face of the rise in cases of [COVID-19] so as not to overload our health system! “, had tweeted the minister caquiste.
The elected representative of the Mauricie had partially retracted in the following days and had agreed that the message could have been better tied. “The human quality” of his message was “not optimal”, he agreed in an interview with Le Devoir.
Further details will follow.
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