Olympic Stadium opens to shelter asylum seekers
Spike in Haitians fleeing U.S. ‘unheard of ’
Montreal’s iconic Olympic Stadium has been opened up to cope with an unprecedented influx of refugees.
An increasing wave of Haitian refugee claimants forced officials to make the stadium a temporary shelter as they scrambled to keep up with a demand that shows no signs of slowing down.
The first busload of asylum seekers arrived at the stadium early Wednesday morning. About 150 beds had been set up over the weekend.
Francine Dupuis, who oversees PRAIDA, a government-funded program to help refugees get on their feet in Quebec, said the number of refugee claimants in recent months was unprecedented.
Most of the current arrivals were Haitians fleeing the United States because they feared their temporary resident status in that country would be revoked. Hoping to connect with Montreal’s deep-rooted Haitian community, they were crossing the border into Quebec.
“It’s unheard of,” Dupuis said. “In 30 years, I’ve never seen this kind of volume or intensity.”
Dupuis said about 90 per cent of asylum seekers coming into Quebec were now Haitian. In July, PRAIDA received 1,200 new requests, she said, close to four times more than an average month.
“We’re doing our best, but obviously there’s going to be a limit. And we’re close to that limit.”
The situation started in May when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to remove the temporary protected status granted to nearly 60,000 Haitians living in the country. The status had been granted in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti.
In a series of tweets, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre welcomed the refugees on Wednesday, calling the effort a “humanitarian gesture.”
Coderre said the city was working closely with the provincial and federal governments on the issue, and called the situation “another consequence” of Trump’s immigration politics.
“But I don’t think anybody has the answers,” Dupuis said. “Nobody knows when it’s going to stop. At one point I think the government will have to make a decision — do we continue to receive them, and if we do, where are the resources going to come from?”
Marjorie Villefranche, director general of the community centre Maison d’Haiti, said she started hearing from Haitian families in New York and Florida as early as May.
“They’ve been panicking,” Villefranche said. “They’re vulnerable people who do not want to return to Haiti because of how difficult a situation it would be for them. They prefer to try their chances in Canada.”
Figures compiled by the Canadian Border Services Agency indicated Quebec had become Canada’s main entry point for refugees. The CBSA figures show that of the 4,345 people who either sought asylum at border stations or were intercepted by police while trying to enter Canada in the first six months of 2017, 3,350 were recorded in Quebec.
PRAIDA offers medical, nursing and psycho-social services to asylum seekers, hosting them in a dozen locations across Montreal — in empty schools, rehab centres, hotels and YMCAs — while helping them with the required paperwork for refugees.
Running out of other options to keep up with the recent surge, the agency reached out to the Olympic Stadium for help.
Olympic Park spokesperson Cédric Essiminy said stadium officials were approached on Friday about the idea of hosting refugees for the next couple of months.
He said they were happy to participate in the effort.
As of Wednesday morning, the stadium had 150 beds set up in a communal space in its western hall, where caregivers will be using a nearby concession stand to prepare and distribute food. Refugees will also have access to roughly 20 showers in an unused team locker room in the basement. Essiminy said the space could accommodate up to 450 beds.
Hosting the refugees will not affect any of the stadium’s activities, Essiminy said.
The same space in the stadium was used for H1N1 vaccinations in 2009. It was also set up, beds and all, to host people from the neighbourhood who were without electricity during the 1998 ice storm, but ended up not being used when power was restored.
“We don’t have any experience with this kind of thing specifically, but we can be a good host,” Essiminy said. “The Olympic Stadium is 40 years old. We’re used to being part of the history of Montreal, in any way whatsoever.”