Admit that it’s a bit ironic.
On the one hand, François Legault calls in an open letter for Ottawa’s intervention regarding asylum seekers who would push Quebec to the “breaking point”.
On the other hand, the federal Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, decides to tighten the screws on foreign students… a measure which will have no effect in Quebec, which has already tackled this issue. And he chose to make his announcement… in Montreal.
Thanks anyway. What about the refugee question? “A turn of the screw” is necessary, admits Marc Miller. But for now, nothing concrete.
However, the stakes are high. Since the start of 2023, Quebec has received nearly half of the asylum seekers arriving in Canada. Prorated by population, this is almost three times more than the other provinces.
This weighs on our reception capacity, even if it would be a mistake to blame all of Quebec’s problems on refugees. The collapse of our health care system and the housing crisis have much deeper roots.
It was thought that closing Roxham Road would reduce and rebalance the flow of refugees. But now refugees are arriving in large numbers at the airport, often Mexicans arriving at Montreal-Trudeau.
This influx stems from a change adopted by Justin Trudeau in 2016, shortly after he came to power. Brushing aside the warnings from officials, the Prime Minister removed the requirement for Mexicans to hold a visa to enter Canada that Stephen Harper had imposed in 2009 to curb the escalation of asylum requests.
Justin Trudeau was keen to fulfill an election promise and break with the legacy of the Conservatives. This gesture of compassion was a way of proving that Canada was “back” on the international stage.
It must be said that the shocking image of little Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian migrant found dead drowned on the beach of a seaside resort in Turkey, created a global commotion and marked a pivotal point in the Canadian electoral campaign.
Before lifting the visa requirement, the Liberals had promised to adjust the situation if asylum requests from Mexico exceeded 3,500 per year. Except that the measures are slow to follow, even if we have passed this border a long time ago.
Since 2015, asylum requests from Mexico have literally exploded, particularly since the end of the pandemic. For the first 11 months of 2023, Canada received 22,365 applications. This is 100 times more than when the visa was required.
Mexico is now at the top of the list of countries from which the greatest number of asylum requests come to Canada.
We do not deny the persecution that certain Mexicans experience in their country, particularly due to the violence of drug cartels. And of course, Canada has obligations towards people who seek asylum, under international conventions.
Except that in most cases, Mexicans are not considered refugees by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada when it examines their case, often after many months or years.
The statistics are striking. Over the past five years, only 26% to 42% of asylum requests submitted by Mexicans have been granted, depending on the year. This is much less than for requests from other countries, which have fluctuated between 59% and 72% per year for five years.
In short, most of the Mexicans’ demands are not legitimate. After years of waiting, a vast majority of them are forced to return to their country. A costly journey for everyone that ends in a fishtail.
The worst is that networks controlled by organized crime are being set up to smuggle Mexican nationals who arrived through Quebec to the United States. Passport traffickers in Mexico fabricate documents that even allow criminals from other countries to enter Canada, as the show’s report demonstrated Investigation.
Despite this very worrying situation, Ottawa is slow to act.
It is true that requiring a visa can slow down tourism. It is also true that Mexico is an important trading partner, with the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement. It may seem curious that goods circulate freely between the countries of the three “amigos”, but not individuals.
The fact remains that the current situation is unjustifiable. Ottawa must tighten our invisible border with Mexico, considering all impacts. Raising requirements for Mexicans will certainly cause a bottleneck at the embassy, which could cause problems for Mexicans who need a temporary work permit, for example.
Let’s think about it properly.
The position of The Press
If it wants to help Quebec, which receives a disproportionate share of refugees in Canada, Ottawa must tighten the rules to counter the explosion of asylum requests from Mexico which are mostly unfounded.