Claiming to be unable to respond to the crying needs and “distress” of asylum seekers, who are growing in number, consultation committees and community organizations in Montreal are demanding additional investments and access to various programs and services. public to help them in their efforts.
“We are in a critical situation, we must act before the situation becomes even more dramatic and explodes in our face,” says Maria Ximena Florez, who represents social organizations in Ville Saint-Laurent.
In the large hall of the Côte-des-Neiges Community Resource Center, where representatives of 16 Montreal neighborhoods had gathered for a press conference on Tuesday, the stakeholders are unanimous: they can no longer meet the demand. .
Community organizations have reached saturation point. We are hitting a wall.
Since the reopening of the borders, the number of asylum seekers has exploded, both in Quebec and internationally. The year 2022 will have been a record year at the global level. In Quebec, it is estimated that they are between 40,000 and 50,000 at present, of which approximately 40% would have arrived by Roxham Road.
“Very quickly, we were overwhelmed given the massive influx of asylum applications on a daily basis”, explains Fatma Djebbar, head of the Interpreter Service for Help and Reference to Immigrants (Siari), in Côte-des-Neiges. . Before this crisis, we received an average of five asylum seekers a day. We have reached around sixty asylum seekers per day, with the same staff and the same subsidies. »
Deprived of services
No matter how imaginative they may be, pool their resources and “work with the means at hand” to “palliate the flaws of a deficient reception system”, the community organizations simply can’t do it anymore.
“We call on the various levels of government because the community organizations have reached a saturation point. We are hitting a wall, ”adds Stephan Reichhold, of the Round Table of Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants (TCRI).
The coalition is not only demanding more money to succeed in offering “adequate support and support” to asylum seekers, but also more services for them.
“Unlike other newcomers, asylum seekers are not eligible for services, they are left to their own devices,” summarizes Mr. Reichhold. More specifically, the coalition is asking the Quebec government to rescind the 1996 Council of Ministers decision that limits access to public services for asylum seekers. It calls for access to all services, such as subsidized childcare services and employability measures.
Finally, the coalition is demanding legal support services for asylum seekers and a temporary accommodation system for those who do not have access to decent housing.
too many barriers
According to the members of the coalition, the services put in place by Quebec and Ottawa are insufficient and “chaotic”. Hosted in hotels, not speaking the language and often plagued by trauma following their long journey, asylum seekers face many barriers.
How can they find accommodation and food if they don’t have access to a job quickly? How can they work and learn French if they cannot send their children to daycare or school? How can they go to work if they cannot afford transport tickets? So many questions put forward by representatives of community organizations to illustrate the difficulty of their journey.
Community groups denounce the prejudice that asylum seekers are a “burden on society”, recalling that they only want to work and live in safety. “Public policies [les concernant] are considered expenses, but are rather investments,” explains Véronica Islas, from the Carrefour de ressources en interculturel.
“When they arrive and they have zero service, they will find a way to organize themselves. But sometimes, when you have no papers and no means, you simply can’t do anything. We remove all the power to act from these people, so we make sure that they are going to crash, ”summarizes Mme Islas, generating a round of applause in the room.
As the press conference ends, a group of asylum seekers wait in the hallway. They come to get help filling out administrative forms. All those with whom The duty spoke wanted only one thing: to obtain the work permit as soon as possible to regain some semblance of normality and support their families.