Hundreds of illegal migrants come by the Quebec

Photo Matthieu Payen
At the end of the rang Roxham, Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, in Montérégie, customs agents and the royal Canadian mounted police intercepted the migrants passing the border. We have hidden the faces of the police officers because some of them are active in secret missions.

Matthew Payen

Wednesday, 2 August 2017 00:00

UPDATE
Wednesday, 2 August 2017 00:00

Look at this article

Faced with an ever-growing illegal migrants, the canadian custom, were obliged to install at the beginning of the week a temporary position with tents, chairs and toilets at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle.

The figures speak for themselves : from January to June, the royal Canadian mounted police (RCMP) intercepted 3350 people in Quebec, more than three-quarters of interceptions in the country.

And of this number, a large part comes from an irregular path well-known within the rang Roxham, Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle.

“This morning we stopped forty people, it is less than usual “, tells us how an agent, who speaks of 200 migrants per day on an average.

“Unprecedented “

According to the Union of customs and immigration, we reached the end of the week of 24 July, with nearly 400 people who have left the United States to enter Canada illegally.

“Our troops are tired and overwhelmed by the situation “, insists Jean-Pierre Fortin, president of the union. We had seen an increase in the beginning of the year with the arrival of syrian refugees, but for the past two weeks, this is unprecedented. “

The RCMP has installed on Monday, two tents, a thirty chairs and tables at the end of the rang Roxham, and yesterday added lighting and two portable toilets. “It is for the comfort of our police officers and people that happen “, said America Fat, a spokesman for the RCMP.

Prior to this, the police were confined day and night in their cruisers.

The side of the municipality, is said to trust the authorities. “Citizens complain of the passage of the vehicles of the police, but we prefer they stop people at the border rather than in the fields,” said Daniel Striletsky, director general of the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle.

Photo Matthieu Payen

Two portable toilets were installed yesterday at the side of the point of passage for migrants to their comfort and that of staff members.

Haitians

The Newspaper spent four hours on-site yesterday and has seen a score of new arrivals. Among them, 10 Haitians, including two babies and a little girl of 6 years (see another text).

“The Haitians, it’s all new,” says Adam Pony who resides a few tens of meters of the place of illegal crossing.

For this observer, there is only one solution : to come in aid to the countries of migrants. “Instead of cry, it is necessary to act, go in there, doing humanitarian work and try to improve their lot so that they remain there “, believes the one who will go in September to renovate a school in Guatemala.

They are afraid of Trump

Exhausted after long hours of travel, the migrants that we met yesterday said they were nonetheless pleased to arrive in Canada.

Carole Rene is part of the wave of Haitians fleeing the United States for fear of the discourse of the firmness of the president, Donald Trump against immigrants.

“I’m happy, I’m not afraid,” said the 34 year old woman who just passed irregularly the border on the rang Roxham, Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle.

This nurse of Port-au-Prince wanted a better life in jesus, in early July, Pennsylvania, with her daughter of 6 years, Yvica. But she quickly realized that she could not exercise her profession, and her friends informed her that she risked expulsion.

She then filled up her single suitcase and took a taxi to Canada.

Despite the warnings of the customs, she does not hesitate to cross the border.

In a tone firm, but polite, the agents tell him his rights, and then searched his business and check his identity. “The police are nice here,” she tells us after the fact.

End of visas

Jean-Heoude Feon, intercepted in the same place, is of the same opinion.

This agronomist 35 years of age hope to be able to settle in Canada. “In the United States, there are only the money that counts. Here, I believe that we give more importance to people, ” he said.

Mr. Feon has worked for several years illegally in a laundry in Brooklyn, New York.

In the spring, he saw on Facebook that Trump wanted to put an end to the temporary protection visa granted to Haitians after the 2010 earthquake. He also saw that Justin Trudeau was opposed to the policy of Trump.

“I understood that Canada is a country more hospitable,” he says.