Canada opens Montreal Olympic Stadium for migrants from US

Montreal is temporarily opening its Olympic Stadium as a shelter to host a sudden increase in asylum-seekers arriving from the US.

More than 4300 people have crossed into Canada seeking refugee status since January.

The majority of those have crossed into the province of Quebec, straining resources of government and community groups. The stadium received the request for space last Friday. Asylum seekers began to be moved into the building, one of Montreal’s most well-known landmarks, on Wednesday morning. Canada has seen a significant increase in the number of people crossing illegally into the country between official points of entry and seeking asylum.

Over 3300 people crossed into Quebec between January 1 and 30 June.

Francine Dupuis, of Praida, a provincial programme for the reception and integration of asylum seekers, told the BBC that another 1200 people crossed into the province in July, around 90 per cent of them from Haiti. She said the province has experienced waves of people seeking refugee status before - most recently Syrians crossing in the spring - but that last month’s numbers are unprecedented.

“Usually it comes and goes and it stabilises quite fast. In this case what we are fearing is it might not stabilise,” she said.

Reuters/AP