Premier dials up Ottawa on refugee influx

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This article was published 12/02/2017 (2831 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister said his government has been talking with the Prime Minister’s Office about ways to deal with the rising tide of refugee claimants flooding into Manitoba this winter.

Pallister’s words came soon after RCMP intercepted another seven people on Monday near the border town of Emerson — one of the hotspots in Canada that has seen a surge in people fleeing a potential crackdown on immigrants south of the border.

“There has been a call to the prime minister on this issue. A number of options are being discussed,” Pallister said Monday. “My first concern is for the security of Manitobans, but I’m also, of course, concerned for the people seeking refuge here.”

Without any added support from governments, the Winnipeg Foundation has stepped up to help the one agency that’s been trying to help the asylum seekers.

At a news conference Monday at the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council’s Welcome Place, the Winnipeg Foundation announced it was giving the non-profit $33,000 in emergency funding to help the refugee claimants.

This weekend, staff from Welcome Place in Winnipeg travelled to Emerson to fetch 21 freezing asylum seekers after they’d been processed and cleared by the Canada Border Services Agency.

The refugee claimants included five Somalis and 16 from Djibouti — including a family with a baby and two young children — who walked for six hours in the cold.

“I’m glad to say the children are safe and so are the parents,” said Welcome Place executive director Rita Chahal. At the press conference she asked the public to pitch in and help financially, as well.

“The most crucial need is temporary housing,” she said.

Welcome Place is federally funded to help government-assisted refugees, not asylum seekers who have yet to prove before the Immigration and Refugee Board that they’re persons in need of Canada’s protection. For several years, Welcome Place has offered counselling and paralegal help to refugee claimants through its in-land protection services, which have been funded by private donors and the Winnipeg Foundation. In previous years, the service has helped between 60 and 70 asylum seekers a year.

Since April 2016, Welcome Place has helped close to 300 refugee claimants. That number is expected to keep rising as more asylum seekers flee the anti-immigrant, anti-refugee rhetoric in the U.S. following the election of President Donald Trump. Welcome Place has responded by rescuing people at the border this winter, staving off a “crisis” from happening here, said Chahal.

On the weekend, the board of directors of Welcome Place held an emergency meeting and decided to open its doors on Bannatyne Avenue to temporarily house the rush of refugee claimants.

Manitoba’s largest resettlement agency for government-assisted refugees has offices on the lower levels with apartments on the top floors for government-assisted refugees waiting to get into permanent housing.

The 21 asylum seekers sheltered there on the weekend are being moved to the Salvation Army and the family to a home in the community because Welcome Place has to make room for government-assisted refugees arriving later this week, Chahal said.

She learned that five more asylum seekers had arrived at Emerson on Monday, and said Welcome Place staff were en route to pick them up.

Chahal said she was grateful for the kindness that the people in Emerson and CBSA officers have shown to the refugee claimants passing through.

She thanked the Winnipeg Foundation for its continued support but said much financial assistance is needed to help the asylum seekers — from finding them shelter to providing them with paralegal services to prepare their refugee claims.

Neither the federal nor provincial governments have stepped up to offer support in assisting the growing number of refugee claimants from countries such as Somalia and Djibouti who are fleeing the U.S. and crossing into Canada at Emerson, Chahal said.

Under an agreement with the former provincial government, the province funded three apartment suites for asylum seekers — all of which are now full, she said.

If it wanted to, the province could help the situation a great deal by opening up a building that it owns that was used to temporarily house the influx of hundreds of Syrian refugees who arrived last winter.

She said times like these call for individuals and governments to rally together and prevent a humanitarian crisis.

“There are 65 million displaced people around the world,” said Chahal. “As a global community, we have to come together to find common solutions.”

The Winnipeg Foundation said its $33,000 in grants will be used for off-site accommodations to house refugees, to support Welcome Place’s in-Canada protection services program and staffing costs.

Welcome Place is one of only three agencies across Canada to provide in-Canada protection services for refugee claimants arriving in the country.

“We are in need of additional resources to help the refugee claimants to navigate the social and legal systems as they prepare for their claim hearing,” Chahal said. “The Foundation’s support was critical to ensuring the program continued… We also hope Winnipeggers will find it in their hearts to support these refugee claimants.”

To donate go to miic.ca or call 204-977-1000.

— with files from The Canadian Press

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca