Since the beginning of this year, at least ten people have died trying to cross the Canadian border to reach the United States. Before the tragic epic of the Iordache and Chaudhary families, who died in the turbulent waters of the St. Lawrence in Akwesasne last week, there was Jose Leos Cervantes, a Mexican who died near Roxham Road on February 19 and, before him, the Haitian Fritznel Richard, who died on January 4 while trying to reach his wife and children on American soil.
All these dramas are played out against a background of despair, because one does not risk one’s life in a frivolous way. These tragic ends of the journey also seem to have in common, for what we know, a form of abdication in the face of the migration policies in place, which have not delivered their fruits in relation to the hopes cherished by those concerned. Here, a tourist visa that did not turn into an asylum application accepted in good and due form. There, a work permit that never came, despite the promises. Again, an eviction notice spelling the end of all dreams in the chosen host country.
This seemed to be the case with the Iordache family, a couple who arrived in Canada in 2018 and have since had two children. Florin Iordache, his wife, Cristina Monalisa Zenaida, and their two toddlers perished in the sinking which has so far claimed the lives of eight people trying to reach the United States in a small boat found, like the bodies of the deceased , on Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. The complex and tortuous history of the Iordache, which our journalist Sarah R. Champagne reports on in new facets today, unfolds in several chapters marked by unsuccessful asylum applications in Canada and even arrests in the United States as well as than a report leading each time to an eviction notice. The family had exhausted all avenues, apparently. He still had the energy of despair.
Every year, around the world, tens of thousands of migrants die at the end of a road they called hope. If they choose to expose themselves and their children to the risk of death, it is because the situation they are fleeing is also tinged with perils: the inability to find a job and meet their needs, or for their lives because of political conflict or discrimination, for example. After having been a bewildered observer of certain tragedies that have occurred all over the world, now Quebec understands that it is the fatal scene of these desperate passages.
The Akwesasne tragedy raises several important questions. First, it puts the spotlight back on a traffic that has been going on in Mohawk territory for years, the junction of three borders (Quebec, Ontario and New York State) offering an attractive space for organized crime and smugglers of all kinds. . The Grand Chief of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Abram Benedict, agrees that this situation must be corrected, but the challenge is daunting: the surveillance of 37 kilometers of coast known to smugglers for the trafficking of drugs, weapons and now of humans is difficult, and the lure of profit seduces members of the community, who become complicit in these various types of trafficking. It is obviously necessary to tighten controls and stop practicing blindness.
This tragedy also fuels reflection on our migration policies, the weaknesses of which contribute to pushing people to desperate actions. Migrant support groups constantly point out the risks run by people whose situation is not regularized and who are ready to do anything not to return to where they came from. The situation of undocumented immigrants, who would be between 50,000 and 200,000 in Canada, is urgent. In the wake of the Akwesasne tragedy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recalls that Canada must maintain an “orderly” reception system for migrants, but promises strong actions to avoid tragedies. He could start by delivering what he promised, namely the regularization of the status of these migrants who wander without a label, sometimes for several years.