From the dawn of the pandemic until November 21, Chemin Roxham, in Montérégie, has become again what it had been for years: a cul-de-sac that ends just before the invisible border that separates the States United of Canada.
We didn’t talk about it anymore. We had forgotten it. This crossing point – which tens of thousands of people used from 2017 to March 2020 – became completely out of the reach of migrants for more than 20 months.
And there, in less than a month, this little piece of country road came back like a boomerang in political discourse because a little more than 2000 people took it in the hope of claiming asylum in Canada. . About 100 people a day.
Because we forgot everything about Roxham Road, therefore, the Minister of Immigration of Quebec, Jean Boulet, allowed himself an almost absurd tweet on Monday evening. He asked Justin Trudeau to “close the way” by specifying that “we must mobilize in front of the rise in cases of COVID-19 [liée à Omicron] so as not to overload our health system ”. As if it was the variant in person who had just crossed the border.
The shortcut was just terrible and the CAQ government had to quickly admit that no outbreak was linked to the arrival of the migrants. Jean Boulet even said he regretted his tweet whose “human quality” was “not optimal”.
The saddest thing about this is that the minister has completely ignored the exceptional link between Chemin Roxham and the pandemic in Quebec.
Do you remember the much talked about guardian angels during the first wave of the pandemic? These asylum seekers, who found themselves at the front in CHSLDs and hospitals, where did they come from, do you think? There you are, on Roxham Road!
In “recognition of their exceptional contribution” – these are the words of the government, not mine – a program has been set up allowing these guardian angels to obtain their permanent residence in the country. In Quebec, at least 3,000 have taken advantage of it and they would have been much more numerous if the Legault government had accepted that security guards and maintenance employees also be covered by the program.
So instead of closing Roxham Road, it might be better to rename it “Angels’ Way” so as never to suffer from amnesia again.
And speaking of amnesia, the pandemic also seems to have made us forget that we do not live on an island. May the world continue to turn as we fight the coronavirus and its multiple variants.
That wars, organized crime, persecution have not given up. Our international obligations – to which Canada has voluntarily entered into – have not been suspended.
Before shouting that Roxham Road has become a “sieve” and that the “flow of migrants” is “unbearable”, we should perhaps refresh our memories.
Despite the pandemic, which has made international travel a nightmare, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are today a record number of refugees in the world. We are talking about 26 million people. Of that number, 39% are found in just five countries: Turkey, Colombia, Uganda, Pakistan and Germany.
Our neighbor to the south alone received 1.2 million asylum applications in the first six months of 2021. Unheard of. Here in Canada, the trend is rather reversed. Far fewer asylum seekers have been able to reach our home since the onset of COVID-19.
If, in 2019, the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) received more than 58,000 cases, this number fell to 18,500 in 2020 and to 16,058 between January and September 2021.
What about Roxham Road and other crossing points? From April 2020 to September 2021, just 1,429 people applied for asylum after entering Canada illegally. In the same period in 2017 and 2018, they were more than 34,000!
Even taking into account the 2000 arrivals of the last month, we are far from being overwhelmed by asylum requests! In addition, the IRB has the capacity to study them within a reasonable timeframe. The organization took advantage of the lull in the pandemic to get rid of much of its arrears.
We should therefore think twice rather than once before turning back those who knock on our door from the United States, where, let’s face it, things are not going well at all. Little better than during the presidency of Donald Trump.
Especially since we can open our doors wider while keeping public health in mind. Asylum seekers arriving these days are already being tested and may be quarantined if they are not vaccinated. Like all those who arrive in the country.
This is exactly why Roxham Road must remain open: it suits both asylum seekers who are safe there and the state, which can continue to keep watch.