Fast track to despair

“I can’t leave my baby without eating. Government assistance is $1300 and we pay $1500 in rent. We don’t even have enough to pay for the food. »

Reading the message of despair from a couple of Mexican asylum seekers without a work permit seven months after their arrival in the country, Danièle L’Écuyer felt her mother’s heart sink. How long can they last?

Danièle is this retired nurse from Brossard who became a rescue mother for asylum seekers¹. For some time now, she has witnessed situations of great distress. And she asks herself a question: will it take a tragedy for the government to grasp the urgency of the situation?

With Danièle, I went to meet Maria, Roberto* and their baby in their modest half-basement in Longueuil.

” Do you speak Spanish ?

“Not great, but I’m doing.

– Same thing for me. »

With two people who we manage and a little help from the translator on our phone, we had no trouble understanding the nightmare that Maria and Roberto are going through, even though I didn’t know the word for nightmare in Spanish.

The young parents tell me that they had to flee Mexico in August 2022 because their lives were in danger there. They did not arrive by Roxham road, but by plane. They are very grateful to the government for giving them hope for a better life for their child. They ask for nothing better than to integrate, learn French and rebuild their lives.

But for the time being, while waiting for their interview with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) scheduled for October 2023, they are in a situation of extreme vulnerability, unfortunately very representative of what the thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived in country in recent months.

“We are not living. We’re just trying to survive, ”drops Maria, her features drawn.

On the wall of the dining room, a multicolored banner “Happy birthday! left there after their son’s first birthday, more than three weeks ago. The truth is, they don’t have the heart for the celebrations.

“If we can’t even eat, what are we going to do? asks Maria, on the verge of tears, hugging her son.

Fifteen hundred dollars in rent when last-resort government assistance is only $1,300 is of course too much. But they had no choice. In the midst of a housing crisis, the owner, himself an immigrant, is the only one who has accepted them as tenants while they are still waiting for their papers.

After offering them furniture and clothes, Danièle tries to help them find a cheaper apartment on the South Shore.

To eat, the young parents go to the food bank of the Action Nouvelle Vie organization in Longueuil. But they don’t even have enough to pay the $20 fee for a basket or the bus tickets to get there.

They think it could be worse. “We feel lucky because there are asylum seekers who don’t have Danièle. No furniture. No clothes… Nothing. »

This “nothing” is not an exaggeration. In community organizations, where requests for help have exploded since the summer without state support following, we have seen the arrival of more and more destitute people in recent months. “Situations of poverty and vulnerability that we have never seen before,” said Jérémie Olivier, spokesperson for Action Nouvelle Vie.

New arrivals in sandals in the middle of winter with a baby under a simple blanket. Two families of four who live in a 4 ½ and sleep on the floor…

Their stories follow each other and resemble each other. “These are people who want to work, but who can’t because their appointment with Immigration is in 2024. They don’t have the papers. We even have some who volunteer with us while we wait. Venezuelans who walk an hour every day to volunteer because they want to learn French and integrate. »

As time passes, the distress of asylum seekers increases. After a trying first winter in the country, Maria’s stress level is such that she woke up one morning with a paralyzed face. Not being able to work to support themselves… Not knowing if they will have enough to feed their child… Not knowing if they will find a legal aid lawyer for their asylum application… All of this ends up undermining them .

How come it’s so long? What should these asylum seekers do to hope to obtain their work permit as soon as possible?

“IRCC cannot comment on a specific case,” I am told.

On November 16, 2022, IRCC implemented a temporary fast track allowing asylum seekers to automatically obtain a work permit as soon as their application is deemed admissible. In 80% of cases, in five days at most, it’s settled, I’m told.

In principle, the fast track also applies to those whose application was pending before November 16.

In fact, many are in survival mode, on a fast track to despair.

A fatality ? No.

Reception capacity and respect for the rights and dignity of migrants depend on political will. We saw this clearly with the Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, notes Stephan Reichhold, director of the Round Table of organizations serving refugees and immigrants. Over the past year, more than 133,000 Ukrainian nationals have arrived in Canada under a special program allowing them to quickly live, work and study temporarily in the country².

“If asylum seekers had access to the same services as Ukrainians, we wouldn’t talk about it anymore. »

Faced with a global humanitarian crisis, which will not go away if we close our eyes or if we close the doors, isn’t this the way to go?

*Names are fictitious, the story is not.