Quebec Preparing Welfare Checks for Asylum Seekers


Quebec Preparing Checks for 4,000 People

Quebec preparing checks for an estimated 4,000 people, mostly asylum seekers from the country of Haiti. Simon Laboissonniere, a spokesperson for Quebec’s employment minister, says these people will receive their checks next week. This will be for the month of September. The minimum basic monthly payment will be $623. However, there will be an additional amount depending on the size of each family.

The three-day operation will take place at Montreal’s Palais des congres  convention centre beginning next Wednesday. Once the asylum seekers receive their check they will be asked to leave their temporary shelter and find permanent accommodations. Since many rentals require first and last months rent, plus a deposit, this might prove to be a difficult assignment for the people.

Since the beginning of 2017 nearly 10,000 people have been apprehended at the border. The asylum seekers understand that they must be detained at the border in order to continue with their asylum process. The process generally takes several months and they are not allowed to work during this time. Of the 10,000 people nearly 7,000 have arrived since July. Most of them are crossing at an unofficial point between Quebec and New York.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau has taken a stronger line, in an attempt to discourage would be migrants from coming to Canada. He said that Canada is not an automatic safe haven for those seeking quick entry into the country or fleeing the threat of imminent deportation from the United States. Canada is realizing that it is difficult to convince many fleeing across the border that their odds of finding a safe haven are not better in Canada than in America.