B.C. refugee centre reports sharp rise in asylum seekers
People who assist refugees in B.C. are reporting a big jump in the number of new asylum seekers in recent months, and the vast majority are coming on foot from the U.S.
Between April of last year and Feb. 15, Vancouver’s Welcome Centre dealt with 1,140 refugee claimants, compared with 801 in the 2015-16 fiscal year. About 80 per cent of those crossed through Peace Arch Park or nearby, avoiding the controlled border crossings where they would be refused entry.
The facility, where refugees get support services like temporary housing and primary health care, had 99 new clients in January and another 84 the next month.
Those are unusually high numbers, says Chris Friesen, settlement services director for the Immigrant Services Society, which operates the Welcome Centre. In December, there were 63 new clients.
“Our waiting room today is full of refugee claimants,” Friesen said. “(The number) appears to be increasing due to a number of factors including ongoing directives by the Trump administration and the lifting of the Mexican visa requirements.”
Most of those walking across the border have been Kurdish-speaking Iraqis, including families and single men, but there have also been several young families from Afghanistan. Iraqis make up the biggest overall portion of recent new arrivals, with at least 65 over the last three months.
But Mexicans are making up a growing segment of the Welcome Centre’s clients. Twenty-two got services there in February and seven the month before. In comparison, there were just 30 in the entire year leading up to Dec. 1, when Canada officially lifted the requirement for Mexican visitors to carry visas. Now that asylum seekers can arrive from Mexico as tourists, most make refugee claims at Vancouver International Airport.
The surge in new arrivals over the last two months has caused participation in a weekly drop-in group for refugees to increase by nearly 50 per cent.
“It is stretching our resources. ... Some of the pressure points that we’re trying to address in a number of different ways include the need for immediate housing, given the rental market,” Friesen said. “The multilingual staff is, of course, be- ing stretched because of the sheer number of refugee claimants that are accessing support through our facility.”
The large numbers of people running across the border in places like Surrey, Quebec, and Manitoba are part of an entirely new phenomenon, he added.
Irregular crossings began in smaller numbers after Canada and the U.S. implemented the 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement, which stipulates that no one can claim refugee status here if they’re arriving through a secured land border crossing.
“This is why these individuals and families through all sorts of means are desperately trying to come to this country through nonformal entry points,” Friesen said.
In recent months, 18 undocumented people from Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela arrived from the U.S. There has also been growing numbers of claimants from French-speaking Central African countries touching down at YVR. New arrivals checking in at the Welcome Centre include three people in wheelchairs, eight pregnant women, and a family of 10.
With the jump in new refugees, Friesen said it would help if the federal government put more resources into the Immigration and Refugee Board, so claimants spend less time in legal limbo, waiting to learn if they’ll be deported.
Despite the extra workload, Friesen said he’s encouraged by the uptick in donations to the service groups that work at the Welcome Centre since the U.S. president announced a travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
“It wasn’t only the donations, but it was the messages that came with those donations that were very humbling,” he said. “Messages of hope, of ‘keep up the good work’ — a lot of encouraging messages.”
The multilingual staff is, of course, being stretched because of the sheer number of refugee claimants that are accessing support through our facility.