Premier François Legault made immigration the main focus of his Paris trip, urging the federal government to force Quebec asylum seekers to move elsewhere, including those already settled in the province. demanded.
He told reporters Wednesday at the Quebec mission’s offices in Paris that half of the asylum seekers currently in Quebec should be transferred to other provinces.
“What I want is to see results,” he said. “Yes, it should be mandatory, but it’s up to the federal government to manage it,” he said of transfers.
Mr. Legault’s latest remarks follow similar statements on Tuesday, in which he said the government has urged Ottawa to implement a waiting list for asylum seekers entering the country, similar to the system that has existed for decades in France. He said he requested that a zone be established.
The prime minister said he would address the issue when he talks with French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday.
Legault’s comments prompted a backlash from federal Immigration Minister Mark Miller, who suggested on Wednesday that Legault’s demands were “inhumane.”
Miller said the federal government is working with states to distribute asylum seekers more evenly across the country. But he accused Legault of using immigration for political purposes and said Ottawa can’t force people to move.
“It makes no sense,” Legault said.
“What Mr. Legault is saying is, ‘Get these people out for us.’ … Is he telling us to go get them and send them to Ontario?” ” Miller told reporters in Ottawa.
“I think there are a lot of political factors driving this. I think this is rhetoric that he can weaponize for his own political purposes. At the end of the day, we can’t be rational and pragmatic. I think you have to stick to things.”
Legault said Wednesday that it “doesn’t make sense” that Quebec hosts about 45 per cent of Canada’s asylum seekers when it accounts for only 22 per cent of the population.
Of the 143,000 asylum applications filed in Canada in 2023, 45 per cent were made in Quebec, according to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
In July, former Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette sent a letter to Miller and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominique LeBlanc calling for a “safe transition site” to hold people whose asylum claims have been rejected until they can be returned to their country of origin. ” was proposed.
“It may also be used to facilitate the transfer of certain asylum seekers to other Canadian provinces or territories,” she wrote.
Other countries that are “parties to the same international treaties as Canada” also use such sites, Fréchette added, citing France in particular.
Waiting zone developed in France
Waiting Zones were developed in France in 1992 and exist in approximately 100 locations at airports, ports and train stations across France.
People arriving in France can be detained in France for up to 26 days if they are seeking asylum, are refused entry, or are denied boarding to their final destination.
However, its use is controversial. According to media reports, storage rooms in some of these centers resemble solitary confinement cells. Refugee advocacy groups have called for the facility to be closed, saying the basic needs of those held there are often not met.
Warda Shazadi Machen, a Toronto-based immigration and refugee lawyer, said setting up a similar site in Canada would be costly. He said it would be desirable for asylum seekers to be able to find a diaspora group from their home country when they arrive.
“We want to encourage complainants to find members of their community and reach out to them for assistance,” she said.
Mr Meigen also said there was a huge emotional burden on people traveling to seek asylum in a new country.
Miller criticizes Legault’s proposal as ‘insane’
Miller said Tuesday that the holding zone idea is “an order of magnitude different from anything that has been considered in Canada.”
He said Wednesday that Legault’s proposal to force asylum seekers to leave Quebec is “insane and unreasonable.”
Instead, Ottawa offers financial incentives to provinces that want to take in more asylum seekers, and threatens to reduce the number of economic migrants to provinces that resist.
Mr Meigen said asylum seekers would choose to move to another jurisdiction if they had a valid reason. For example, it could connect you with a community contact in another state, or it could speed up the processing of asylum claims.
“There are other ways to think about redistribution that are a little more fair than just confining people into small spaces,” she says. “And I think that makes more sense.”
Guillaume Chris Rivard, Quebec’s pro-solidarity immigration critic and immigration lawyer, said the premier’s comments were disappointing.
He is horrified and said it is not Quebec’s responsibility to make decisions like this. Instead, he said, states should offer incentives such as housing and jobs as birth rates decline, which should reduce delays for asylum seekers, but suggests forced relocation is going too far. Ta.
