(Montreal) The cry from the heart of community organizations, overwhelmed by the crisis of asylum seekers, has been heard. On Monday, Ministers Chantal Rouleau, responsible for Social Solidarity and Community Action, and Christine Fréchette, responsible for Immigration, Francisation and Integration, announced emergency financial assistance of 3, 5 millions.
Of this sum, 3 million comes from the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity and will be used to provide migrants with food and clothing aid, family support and housing assistance.
The subsidies will be managed by Centraide of Greater Montreal, which will redistribute everything to 22 targeted organizations, which directly help asylum seekers and whose activities are currently greatly impacted by the increase in demand.
Centraide will also increase its contribution with the addition of an investment of $350,000, indicated its president and chief executive officer, Claude Pinard.
The additional half-million, from the Department of Immigration, will be used to provide, via a dozen other organizations in Montreal, Laval, Montérégie and the Capitale-Nationale, accommodation and access to information sessions to explain to asylum seekers what services they are entitled to.
Other organizations could possibly be supported in a second phase, the ministers announced.
Two weeks ago, a group of community and neighborhood organizations in Montreal working with immigrants and asylum seekers sounded the alarm.
Out of breath, arms and money, they demanded immediate relief measures to meet the growing demand for their services, attributable in part to the reopening of international borders post-pandemic, which caused an unprecedented influx asylum seekers at Canada’s doorstep.
Last year alone, some 90,000 asylum seekers came to seek refuge in Quebec; of the number, 40% arrived via Roxham Road, recently counted Stephan Reichhold, director of the Round Table of Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants (TCRI).
In a press briefing, Minister Fréchette said that it was more like 60,000 asylum seekers who came knocking on Quebec’s door, both through official channels and through clandestine entry points.