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Jamie Sarkonak：不要讓加拿大其他地區承受尋求庇護者的負擔 改變規則
自由主義的漏洞為該國帶來了太多想要成為難民的人，但阿爾伯塔省、不列顛哥倫比亞省、新不倫瑞克省和新斯科舍省已經人滿為患
Jamie Sarkonak 2024 年 9 月 15 日
尋求庇護的難民
2023 年 7 月 13 日，尋求庇護的難民在安大略省多倫多的無家可歸者設施外露營。照片由 JACK BOLAND /Postmedia 拍攝
總理賈斯汀·特魯多 (Justin Trudeau) 在 2017 年要求增加尋求庇護者的數量，他做到了。安大略省和魁北克省獲得了大部分。現在，這些省份難以承擔這些負擔，聯邦政府提出了一個新的解決方案：分攤負擔。
正在考慮的一項聯邦計劃將把大約 28,000 名尋求庇護者送往阿爾伯塔省，32,500 人送往不列顛哥倫比亞省，5,000 人送往新斯科舍省，4,600 人送往新不倫瑞克省。該計劃的目的是按各省人口比例在全國範圍內分攤負擔。隻是，我們沒有空間。
準備接收更多尋求庇護者的省份已經經曆了痛苦的租金上漲和醫生短缺。安大略省和不列顛哥倫比亞省高昂的生活成本迫使加拿大人湧入阿爾伯塔省；5 月份，阿爾伯塔省的租金同比上漲了 17.5%。在大西洋省份，接待能力也好不到哪裏去：6 月份，新斯科舍省的家庭醫生候補名單上有 160,000 人，占總人口的 16%；新不倫瑞克省的租金正在飛漲。
自由黨政府試圖塞進的這些人根本就沒有足夠的空間：國際學生、臨時工、永久居民、難民……尤其是尋求庇護者，他們在等待申請處理時會用掉有限的國家福利——許多加拿大人會發現這些申請是虛假的。可以增加容量，但速度隻能這麽快。
加拿大目前有 236,000 名尋求庇護者，這是急劇上升的一個因素。僅在 2016 年，就隻有 24,000 人提出了難民申請；到 2023 年，這一數字增加了六倍，達到 145,000 人。批準率高達 78%，這在一定程度上是錄取標準寬泛的一個因素。可疑的是，大多數尼日利亞申請人的申請都是基於性取向，這很難反駁。來自索馬裏和敘利亞等不穩定國家的虛假和篩選不充分的申請也令人擔憂。
這種增長的部分原因可能可以追溯到 2017 年，總理興高采烈地向世界高呼“加拿大人歡迎你們”，以回應唐納德·特朗普總統暫時停止來自高風險國家（主要是非洲和中東）的移民。這在新聞中經常被錯誤地描述為“穆斯林禁令”，特魯多因扮演陪襯角色而受到國際讚譽。
更重要的是，特魯多進行了一些程序上的改變，以增加庇護申請人的流量。2016 年，政府擴大了免簽國家名單，並要求來自這些國家的旅行者獲得電子旅行授權 (eTA)；2017 年隻有 3,500 名 eTA 持有者提出難民申請，但到 2023 年，這一數字上升到略高於 27,000 人——增長了 672%。顯然，加拿大向太多本不應該享有這一特權的國家提供了免簽旅行。
聯邦政府還在 2023 年 2 月大幅放寬了訪客簽證的資格要求，取消了要求旅行者證明他們有離開計劃並且有足夠的錢來支付逗留費用的要求。這顯然是為了減少聯邦移民部門的簽證申請量——這是一個愚蠢的舉動，因為政府還在一份備忘錄中收到警告，此舉將導致更多的庇護申請。
最臭名昭著的是特魯多決定在通往魁北克的非法 Roxham Road 過境點鋪開歡迎墊，允許超過 100,000 名來曆不明的移民和庇護申請者利用加拿大無人防守的腹地。2017 年，加拿大軍方實際上被迫為越境者建造了一個帳篷城，而不是守衛邊境，到 2018 年，聯邦政府開始向當地人支付移民高速公路帶來的不便。
2022 年，特魯多為他決定開放羅克瑟姆路辯護，無視魁北克人的懇求。直到 2023 年 3 月，他才正式關閉了過境點。
許多大型難民來源國沒有理由向我們發送難民。墨西哥是加拿大最大的庇護申請人輸出國，該國沒有處於戰爭狀態，雖然在許多地方不安全，但在其他許多地方是安全的。印度也是如此，排名僅次於墨西哥。排名第三的尼日利亞確實遭受了地區動蕩，但沒有中東和烏克蘭那樣的全麵戰爭。
合法的難民或方便的申請人，他們的金錢和國家能力都很高昂。他們獲得醫療保險、法律援助和住房。住宿
去年，政府為這一計劃花費了 5.57 億美元；申請人每天平均可獲得 224 美元的住宿和夥食費，相當於每年 82,000 美元（考慮到通常需要兩年時間才能處理一項申請，這是一個現實的年度支出）。
加拿大的平均工資僅為 55,630 美元。
移民部長馬克·米勒為將尋求庇護者分散到全國各地的提議辯護，稱其為“公平”，好像公平的解決方案是有可能實現的。但事實並非如此。如果大門沒有敞開並被關在那裏，如果加拿大人沒有眼睜睜地看著他們的經濟停滯十年，也許可以實現。現在，我們正處於這樣一個階段：每個結果都讓各省不堪重負，因為根據 2014 年的規定，這些人無法在加拿大提出難民申請。加拿大人放棄了醫生的預約名額，繳納了更多的稅，看著住房需求飆升，隻是為了看到這個係統被利用。
我們不是世界慈善屋。我們應該自豪地接受一定數量的真正逃離戰爭的難民，但我們不能向每個來自發展中國家、與妻子幸福結婚並聲稱自己是雙性戀的男子提供慷慨的國家福利。
米勒可以限製對安大略省和魁北克省的損害，驅逐他需要驅逐的人，填補巨大的漏洞，並祈禱選民忘記自由黨對難民檔案的嚴重管理不善。阿爾伯塔省、不列顛哥倫比亞省、新斯科舍省和新不倫瑞克省不應為他的政府的錯誤買單。
Jamie Sarkonak: Don't burden the rest of Canada with asylum seekers. Change the rules
Liberal loopholes have brought too many want-to-be refugees to the country, but Alberta, B.C., New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are at capacity
Jamie Sarkonak Sep 15, 2024
Asylum-seeking refugees camp out outside a facility for homeless people in Toronto, Ont., July 13, 2023. PHOTO BY JACK BOLAND /Postmedia
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked for an asylum-seeker surge in 2017, and boy did he get it. Well, Ontario and Quebec got most of it. And now, as those provinces struggle to support the weight, the federal government has floated a new solution: just spread it around.
A federal plan under consideration would send about 28,000 asylum seekers to Alberta, 32,500 to British Columbia, 5,000 to Nova Scotia and 4,600 to New Brunswick. The idea is to distribute the burden across the country in proportion to provincial populations. Only, we don’t have any room.
The provinces poised to have more asylum seekers dumped in their laps have already experienced painful rent hikes and doctor shortages. The obscene cost of living in Ontario and B.C. has pushed Canadians into Alberta; and in May, Alberta rents rose 17.5 per cent year-over-year. In the Atlantic provinces, capacity isn’t much better: Nova Scotia’s family doctor wait list was at 160,000 in June, or 16 per cent of the population; rents in New Brunswick are skyrocketing.
There is simply no room for all the people the Liberal government is trying to cram in: international students, temporary workers, permanent residents, refugees … and especially asylum seekers, who use up limited state benefits as they wait for their claims to be processed — claims that many Canadians would find spurious. More capacity can be built, but only so fast.
Canada currently has 236,000 asylum seekers, a factor of a drastic incline. In just 2016, only 24,000 refugee claims were made; that number sextupled to 145,000 in 2023. The approval rate is an incredibly high 78 per cent, but this is in part a factor of wide admissions criteria. A suspicious majority of Nigerian claimants base their claims on sexual orientation, which is difficult to disprove. False and inadequately screened claims from unstable countries, such as Somalia and Syria, are also a concern.
More significantly, Trudeau made a number of procedural changes to increase asylum claimant flow. In 2016, the government expanded the list of visa-exempt countries and required travellers from them to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA); only 3,500 eTA holders made refugee claims in 2017, but in 2023, that number rose to just over 27,000 — an increase of 672 per cent. Evidently, Canada granted visa-free travel to far too many countries that should never have been given the privilege.
The feds also dramatically loosened visitor visa eligibility in February 2023, axing the requirement for travellers to prove that they had a plan to leave and enough money to cover their stay. This was an apparent bid to reduce the volume of visa applications inundating the federal immigration department — a foolish one, because the government was also warned in a memo that this move would lead to more asylum claims.
Most notorious was Trudeau’s decision to roll out the welcome mat at the illegal Roxham Road border crossing into Quebec, allowing more than 100,000 migrants and asylum claimants of questionable provenance to capitalize on Canada’s undefended underbelly. In 2017, the Canadian military was actually made to construct a tent city for the border-crossers, instead of, you know, guarding the border, and by 2018, the feds were paying out locals for the inconvenience of the migrant highway.
In 2022, Trudeau defended his decision to leave Roxham Road open, ignoring the pleas of Quebecers. It took until March 2023 for him to officially close the crossing.
Many large source countries have no business sending us refugees. Mexico, which is the top exporter of asylum claimants to Canada, is not at war and, though unsafe in many places, is safe in many others. The same can be said for India, which ranks just below Mexico. Nigeria, in third, does suffer regional unrest, but not the kind of all-out war seen in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Legitimate refugees or claimants of convenience, they all cost dearly in dollars and state capacity. They’re provided health-care coverage, legal assistance and housing. Lodging alone cost the government $557 million last year; claimants received an average of $224 per day for accommodation and food, which equates to $82,000 per year (a realistic annual haul, considering that it usually takes two years to process a claim).
For context, the average salary in Canada is just $55,630.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller defends his proposal to spread asylum seekers around the country by calling it “fair” as if a fair solution is remotely possible. It isn’t. It may have been, if the gates weren’t swung wide open and held there, if Canadians weren’t made to watch their economy stagnate for a decade. Now, we’re at the point where every outcome leaves provinces overwhelmed with people who wouldn’t have been able to stake refugee claims in Canada under 2014 rules. Canadians are giving up doctors’ appointment slots, paying more in taxes, watching demand for housing soar, just to see the system exploited.
We aren’t the world’s charity shack. We should be proud to accept an absorbable number of refugees who are genuinely fleeing war, but we can’t be granting generous state benefits to every happily-married-to-a-woman man from a developing country who claims to be bisexual.
Miller can limit the damage to Ontario and Quebec, deport who he needs to, plug the gaping loopholes and pray that voters forget the Liberals’ grievous mismanagement of the refugees file. It’s not up to Alberta, B.C., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to pay for his government’s mistakes.
