As the number of refugee claims in Canada reached a new high, a Conservative MP revealed that Ottawa is offering $224 a day to some foreigners seeking asylum after entering the country illegally.
Last week, Conservative MP Lianne Rood uploaded an internal profile on social media – the official response to the question "What are the goods and services obtained by asylum seekers in Canada during the verification of their identity processing stage":
The average cost of accommodation is "$140 per room per night", while the average cost per meal is "$84 per person per day", totalling $224 per applicant per day.
Moreover, these expenses may be higher because other "necessities" for the applicant are also taken into account, including "toiletries, medicines, diapers", etc.
"Regardless of how they enter Canada, accommodation and meals will be provided once an applicant is placed in an IRCC-operated hotel."
The caption attached to the document Rood uploaded on May 7 reads: "The Liberal government benefits illegal border crossers 10 times more than it gives to older Canadians!" Shameful! ”
According to the latest IRCC data, the agency currently has 156032 pending asylum applications, although not all applicants are in Canada and staying in IRCC hotels.
With many refugees putting enormous pressure on city-run shelters, the Trudeau government recently launched the Temporary Housing Assistance Program, which provides "limited temporary accommodation for applicants who have nowhere to take refuge."
As of November last year, the program operated 3,800 rooms across Canada, totaling about 7,000 applicants, at a total annual cost of $557 million.
Rood's issue concerns a specific category of asylum seekers in the federal circle known as "illegal border crossers". These individuals filed for asylum after entering Canada illegally.
In this category, the number of pending applications is at an all-time high. By the end of 2023, IRCC had recorded 4,287 pending refugee claims filed by illegal border crossers.
In the last three months of 2023, 2,145 people made asylum applications after entering Canada illegally – an average of one per hour.
During the three-month period, the authorities processed only 4,139 cases, compared to 44,000 cases on the original queue list, of which 3,188 were accepted as official refugees and the other 951 were either denied, withdrawn or abandoned.
Although the Trudeau government closed the notorious Roxham border crossing in March 2023, the number of arrivals remains high.
During these six years, the location in rural Quebec has served as a gateway for more than 100,000 illegal border crossers. In the South, there are even bus companies in the United States that offer specialized services to facilitate foreign nationals seeking to enter Canada and apply for asylum. In the north, the RCMP has spent millions building semi-permanent homes to handle the influx of people.
While Canada could unilaterally close the Roxham crossing at any time (as it did for months during the pandemic), the Trudeau administration waited until the United States ratified changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement before it began rejecting illegal border crossers.
Despite this, 8,131 illegal border crossers entered Canada in the three months following the closure of Roxham Road – a rate higher than at any time during the six years the intersection was opened.
Since the federal government first began tracking illegal border crossers, 39,643 people have been officially approved as "refugees," while 22,611 have been denied — an IRCC ratio of about 2:1 in approved cases to denied cases.
The comments of Canadian netizens were angry and sad. For example, this netizen said:
"Gen Z, that's why the Liberals keep you from owning your own house and prospering. They want you to be tied to a job forever and barely get by. They have increased the country's debt, causing inflation and high interest rates. It's all by design. Under the guise of humanitarian aid, they deliberately raise their debts high. You are becoming a slave to the elite and will be in a state of scare forever. ”
"Historically, elites have been the cause of the demise and downfall of many nations."
"There are so many Canadians and young people who suffer silently without a job, an income, housing, an education... They hope for a better future in their home country, Canada. Charity should start at home first. ”
However, some netizens feel that there is nothing to blame. For a variety of reasons, whether it be political persecution, drug gangs, homosexuality, or flooding to destroy their homes, or simply because they have no future, they come with the "Canadian dream" – as a decent power, you always need to treat each other with dignity while they are still in their country.
However, there is no doubt that this huge budget figure will eventually fall on the taxpayers... As a Canadian taxpayer, are you willing to pay for such "humanitarianism"?