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Hold Governments to Account
for COVID-19 Outbreaks The Need to Defend Asylum Seekers in Quebec
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I'm
going to talk first about the situation of asylum seekers in the
Haitian community who are patient care attendants in residential and
long-term care centres (CHSLDs) and home care aides, and of those who
have no choice but to continue working despite the alarming increase in
cases of COVID-19 infection. Montreal North has become one
of the largest centres of infection in Quebec. It is home to the most
vulnerable people who are most at risk of becoming infected with
COVID-19 and they are my people, the Haitian people.
Who
benefits from this? Employment agencies that do not respect rights,
that do not pay them even minimum wage. They pick people up from their
homes, and drive them one and a half hours to two hours to work. After
they work eight hours, they have to come back again in a one and a half
to two hour trip, so three to four hours travelling,
11 to 12 hours in total. They sometimes travel in minivans with nine
passengers that are meant to take seven people normally, so you can
imagine the danger.|
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Frantz André: I will go back in time. In 2018 there was a movement that started from here in Canada on the issue of Petrocaribe funds. Oil was being sold by Venezuela at very low prices to allow the Haitian government to free up funds for reconstruction following the 2010 earthquake, and for social programs. The Moise-Lafontant government was in place at that time and wanted to increase the price of oil because the IMF had said "No, we can no longer continue to subsidize you." The population rose up. It was at that time that I started asking for a moratorium to protect people who were being refused and deported in an accelerated manner. My argument was that Haiti was at such a level of insecurity that the government could not continue to deport people to a country where there were riots and people were being killed. The Canadian government didn't react right away. Border officials continued to deport. The security situation in Haiti reached a point of acute deterioration and Prime Minister Lafontant had to resign.
France and the United States then sent helicopters to pick up their nationals at the Decameron Hotel, one of the most beautiful hotels in Haiti, to bring them home. Canada delayed doing the same for a long time. We asked "If the U.S. and French governments did it, why not you?" In July 2018, the government issued a notice to avoid all non-essential travel to Haiti because of the civil unrest in Haiti. This meant that the country was so insecure that no one should travel there. People who have fled insecurity, who have come all the way to Canada, who were facing exploitation and disrespect of their rights, of their human rights according to international law, cannot be sent back to a country that is totally insecure. These people are providers who contribute economically and culturally, who abide by the laws, who do not want to end up on welfare. They are future full-fledged citizens. Citizenship has a special meaning for them in the sense that they want to ensure that they are being recognized for their potential to contribute to Canadian society.
The government had no choice but to put in place a temporary reprieve and that moratorium has been extended. In 2019, an election year, in order to win votes, they kept the temporary reprieve so we would not make too much noise on the street. They increased the acceptance rate.
According to the government the moratorium will
not be
lifted until the level of security is acceptable. In Haiti, according
to our observations, the Haitian state has encouraged insecurity. Why
has it encouraged insecurity? With the popular mobilization that
condemned Jovenel Moise, the current president, for having participated
in a system of
corruption, the population is asking the government to account for the
billions of dollars that it received under the Petrocaribe plan for the
reconstruction of Haiti which was never done.
Our demand is to ensure that asylum seekers are recognized as full-fledged workers with the same rights as everyone who works.
WF: What are the latest developments in this situation?
FA: We have noticed in recent months that there are more middle class people asking to come to Canada because of the terror in Haiti, a terror that is mainly state-organized. There are kidnappings on the streets and ransom demands by groups connected to the government. Insecurity is at its peak. Civil servants, doctors, professionals are leaving Haiti to apply for asylum here because they are most at risk of being kidnapped for ransom.
Among the difficulties encountered are the conflicts between the different levels of the federal and Quebec governments. Changes are frequent, without notice, and lawyers have difficulty keeping up. We learn about changes through the plaintiffs.
It is important to remember that legal aid and social assistance are provincial. All refugee claimants are under federal jurisdiction. This creates a conflict between Quebec's Minister of Immigration Simon Jolin-Barrette and his federal counterpart. Jolin-Barrette has no authority over refugee claimants. Quebec offers social assistance and legal aid services to people who are under federal jurisdiction. Due to lack of funds, legal aid has become more restrictive in accepting applications. As a result, many refugee claimants who would normally be eligible for social assistance automatically are now refused and placed under a discretionary power. Many of these people arrived with no more than $500 in their pockets and I go with them to get social assistance. I have to explain to the welfare staff that there is a moratorium, that they will not be deported, so they are eligible for welfare.
Another problem is the filing of asylum applications. Both at the border and internally, border officials are overwhelmed. Appointments to obtain proof of identity for the asylum seeker are sometimes not given until two, three or even six weeks after their arrival, because right from the beginning, border officials seized their passports, national identity cards and so on. Before they receive the document that legitimizes that they are a refugee claimant, it takes weeks. Without that document there is no social assistance. They find themselves in a state of civil death, in a grey area, for two months or more.
For
example, a lady entered with her daughter in October 2019, with a visa,
legitimately. Another of her daughters, who has been here for years and
has permanent residence took them in. The lady wanted to enrol her
17-year-old daughter in school. But since she had not yet applied for
asylum, her daughter could not go to school. Before the
files were prepared and we were comfortable making the application for
asylum, it was already January. I went with the mother and daughter to
make the application. We handed over the documents. The woman and her
daughter were supposed to return to pick up her refugee claim document
on April 6. This document allows you to get legal aid,
open a bank account, etc. That day, because of the pandemic, the
offices were closed. So they still do not have the required papers and
therefore don't have social assistance.
This is the reality for people who entered Canada legitimately, who are asylum seekers, and who need the services, but are penalized in various ways, by government administrative slowness or by Quebec's refusal to provide automatic assistance (legal aid and social assistance). Meanwhile, they have no work permits and are forced to work under the table. They are also exposed to violence. For example employers take advantage of workers who don't have legal status. To survive many are silent about mistreatment. In some cases, women prostitute themselves, fall into the hands of pimps, and men get beaten up in the workplace and won't go to court.
In conclusion, I want to emphasize that asylum seekers must be recognized as full-fledged workers with the same rights as all those who work here.
Notes
1. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a program created by the U.S. Congress in 1990, that allows foreign nationals to remain in the U.S. if, while they were in the U.S., something catastrophic happened in their country of origin that prevented their safe return. Examples include war, famine, natural disaster, or epidemic. TPS protects people from deportation and allows them to work legally while they remain in the U.S. The program is a temporary form of relief that does not confer permanent residency, citizenship, or any right to ongoing immigration status. TPS status was granted to tens of thousands of Haitians when the deadly earthquake struck their country in 2010, followed by a cholera epidemic and hurricanes. In 2017, the Trump administration ended TPS status for people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and other countries. Because of mass protests and lawsuits against the federal administration, the Department of Homeland Security extended TPS for a number of countries, including Haiti, through January 4, 2021, pending a decision from the lawsuits.
Faced with the threat of deportation and because they are denied entry into Canada through its regular border crossing with the U.S. because of the Safe Third Country Agreement, many Haitians seeking refuge began crossing into Canada irregularly through Roxham Road, located in Hemmingford, Quebec, a small town in Quebec's Eastern Townships.
In 2017, 24,980 asylum claims were presented in Quebec. In 2018, that number rose to 27,970, of which 66 per cent were submitted by people who entered irregularly (with 18,518 intercepted by Canadian authorities). Of these, Haiti was among the top five countries of origin for asylum seekers.
The World Bank recognizes Haiti as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with millions of people living below the extreme poverty line. In 2004, Canada, along with the U.S. and France, participated in regime change in that country, thereby removing Haiti's democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
2. Montreal North is home to many Quebeckers of Haitian origin as well as many Haitian permanent residents, refugees and asylum seekers. It is Montreal's hardest hit borough with regard to COVID-19.
As of May 1, public health data showed 1,316 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Montreal North an infection rate of 1, 562 per 100,000 people. For comparison, Montreal overall has 804 cases per 100,000 people, whereas areas of Quebec outside Montreal and its suburbs have 101 cases per 100,000. Why is the rate of infection so high in Montreal North?
In Canada, refugees, refugee claimants, protected persons or their family members, those under an unenforceable removal order or who are temporary resident permit holders or young workers participating in special programs can apply for an open work permit that is not job-specific. Many of them are recruited by agencies to work in long-term care facilities (CHSLDs) and private seniors' residences as patient attendants. They earn $14-15 per hour. The agency then bills the residence a much higher amount and it keeps the difference. As it becomes increasingly difficult for these facilities to find people to work at low wages and exploitative conditions, the agencies make sure they benefit even more by billing at even higher rates. Others of these workers are hired by agencies to work in meat-processing plants. Each morning, some half dozen workers are picked up by an agency in a single van and driven to their workplace, often more than an hour's drive away.
La Presse journalist Yves Boisvert interviewed one such worker, who had arrived in 2018 seeking asylum through the Roxham Road irregular crossing. Her claim as well as her appeal have been refused by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Her only remaining option is to apply for permanent residency based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Her husband died in 2004 and she has four children, three of whom live in Haiti and who she sends the little money she earns to help support them. When she first arrived in Quebec in 2018, she was hired to work in a pork slaughterhouse. She then took a course to work with seniors.
She explained that before having contracted the virus, she had worked for an agency in two separate seniors' residences and that two of her co-workers died after contracting the coronavirus -- one a woman she did not know well and the other a refugee in his forties.
A second woman living in Montreal North interviewed by the same journalist had been working in Valleyfield, again through an agency and earning low wages. She also entered the country irregularly through Roxham Road three years ago and has also contracted COVID-19. She recounted that just prior to the 2016 election in Haiti, people had entered her home, killed her nephew and beaten her up. Since then, she has had difficulty walking. Upon her arrival in Canada she worked in a factory which was too physically straining for her, which is why she became a patient attendant. She is still waiting for test results to find out if she is now clear of the virus.
(Translated from the original french by Workers' Forum. Photos: WF)
This article was published in
Number 31 - May 5, 2020
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca