Refused by the temporary government accommodation meant to accommodate them, asylum seekers — and an increasing number of families — are forced to sleep on the streets. This is what happened to Henry Aguamba and his wife, Tessy, originally from Nigeria, who spent the night of April 29 to 30 in front of the Bonaventure metro entrance with their three children, the eldest of whom is in a wheelchair. rolling.
” It rained a lot. The children were shivering from the cold and I was shivering too, but I didn’t want them to see it,” he told Duty Tessy Aguamba bursting into tears.
Arriving in Montreal on April 28, the family, who held visitor visas, preferred to wait and spend a first night in a hotel, terrified of being immediately sent back on a flight if they requested asylum in the airport. The eldest, aged 10, became paraplegic last summer, after being shot in the spine during an attack by bandits while the family was driving to Abuja to collect their visas. at the embassy.
The day after their arrival in Montreal, having no money or relatives, the Aguambas knocked on the door of the downtown YMCA, one of the accommodation centers of the Regional Welcome and Development Program. integration of asylum seekers (PRAIDA) managed by Quebec. But the couple and their three children, aged 3 to 10, were refused, having no proof of their asylum application.
Staff at the Montreal office of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) referred them to the website to complete an application. Night has fallen. They took her outside. “We no longer had hope,” said Henry Aguamba, his throat tight with emotion.
A good Samaritan, who found them soaked and cold in the early morning, took them to the Welcome Collective. “Is this how we welcome people?” » says Maryse Poisson, a worker for this organization that helps new arrivals.
It was the second family in a week who came to see her for refusal of accommodation from PRAIDA. “And we had others. A father and his two children slept for four days on the sidewalk in front of the PRAIDA offices,” says M.me Fish.
No acknowledgment, no services
Anyone who does not request refuge directly from a border agent at the airport does not have access to services and temporary accommodation from the provincial and federal governments.
But when subsequently made at an IRCC office, so-called “internal” asylum requests involve filling out long online forms on the IRCC portal and other complex procedures, difficult to complete without legal assistance.
Once the request is sent, it takes several days, sometimes a few weeks, before obtaining acknowledgment of receipt. And this is where the problem lies: without this precious key, the doors to government services, including accommodation, remain closed.
This concerns us, because it is a public service, funded by the Quebec Ministry of Health, and apparently, it chooses to leave families outside in an unfair and cruel way.
“Because of the delays, they fall through the cracks of the system,” noted Florence Bourdeau, coordinator of the Regroupement des organizations en accommodation des Personnes Migrants (ROHMI). “There are holes in the course. We do not always understand what the PRAIDA criteria are, why certain people are accepted and not others. »
Maryse Poisson finds it “shocking” that more and more families find themselves homeless. “I can’t believe governments can’t make exceptions for families with children,” she said.
Full organisms
With around thirty beds for migrants, the Le Pont organization is currently full, but its manager, Arthur Durieux, says he is regularly contacted by other organizations. “At least once a week, I get called to ask if I have room for a family who is outside. »
He deplores that despite several pleas, PRAIDA has remained unmoved. “There is no opening,” said Mr. Durieux. “It concerns us, because it is a public service, funded by the Quebec Ministry of Health, and apparently, it chooses to leave families outside in an unfair and cruel way. »
Aside from temporary government accommodation, few options are available to asylum seekers waiting for their acknowledgment of receipt from IRCC. The City of Montreal has no shelter for asylum seekers.
Many immigrants end up in emergency shelters for the homeless. “We had the case of a 6-month pregnant woman who was refused by PRAIDA and sent to a shelter full of people with drug addiction and mental health problems. When we talk about integration, it is not ideal,” argued Florence Bourdeau of ROHMI.
Who pays ?
Thanks to the Welcome Collective and pressure from local stakeholders, the Aguamba were able to quickly submit their asylum application and obtain acknowledgment of receipt. The family was finally accepted by PRAIDA.
But in the meantime, it was the community organization that paid out of its own pocket to feed and house the family. “We will never leave a child on the street and we have always paid for a hotel if necessary, but we do not have the capacity to replace government services,” insists Maryse Poisson.
PRAIDA, which says it is full with 1,132 occupied beds out of 1,150, confirmed to Duty that without acknowledgment of receipt, no accommodation is possible. You must also be newly arrived and without financial resources to have access. IRCC also indicates that acknowledgment of receipt is mandatory, but recalls having invested nearly a billion since 2017 for temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, and almost as much for the next three years.