Quebec asks feds to close Roxham crossing

• Quebec is asking the federal government to close a popular, unofficial border crossing south of Montreal because the province can't handle the number of asylum seekers entering the country, but refugee advocates are rejecting Quebec's claims.

More than 100 refugee claimants are entering Quebec every day from the United States through a rural path called Roxham Road, Premier Francois Legault told reporters Wednesday.

“It's unacceptable,” Legault said at the legislature. “It's impossible because we don't have the capacity.”

The federal government takes 14 months to study an asylum claim and in the meantime, Quebec has to house and care for wouldbe refugees and school their children, the premier said.

“We cannot afford to give services,” Legault said, adding that if the current pace continues, Quebec will not have adequate housing for 36,000 new arrivals.

Refugee advocates, however, say they don't accept the premier's claim.

“What is Quebec's capacity for compassion? For justice? It's maybe not unlimited, but the capacity is there,” Paul Clarke, interim executive director of Action Réfugiés Montréal, said Wednesday in an interview.

Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said that during the pandemic, many people who had crossed the border at Roxham Road found work in Quebec's long-term care homes.

“We not only have the capacity, but we also have the need, in fact, for more people,” she said in an interview Wednesday.

Part of the problem, she said, is the length of time it takes the federal government to issue work permits to asylum seekers.

“The federal government could alleviate things tremendously simply by giving work permits shortly after people arrive, so that they can get to work, and there are many jobs that they could very usefully fill,” Dench said.

The irregular border crossing at Roxham Road reopened in November after it was closed during the pandemic. Since the beginning of the year, the RCMP have intercepted 7,013 asylum seekers who have crossed irregularly into Quebec from the U.S. That number is up from 4,246 last year.

In 2019, more than 16,000 asylum seekers were intercepted by the RCMP after crossing irregularly into Quebec.

Legault said many of those who cross irregularly are ultimately not able to stay in Canada.

“You have to understand, the problem is that many of these people are not really refugees,” the premier said. “A refugee is someone who is physically at risk in their country. But the majority are not refugees; eventually, when the file is analyzed, they are refused, returned back home.”