'We're close to the limit': Big O becomes a shelter as refugees flow from U.S.Montreal Gazette, Aug 3, 2017
Outside the YMCA on Tupper St. downtown, near where the Children’s Hospital used to be, dozens of Haitians newly arrived from the United States milled about Wednesday, clutching government documents and looking slightly lost, while Montreal Haitians of long standing came to lend a hand and load their cars with luggage.
“Haitians help Haitians,” one volunteer explained.
Jean Dorméus was among Montreal’s flood of new arrivals. The secretary-general of a political youth group in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, Dorméus, 23, fled six months ago when individuals threatened to kill him and his family, he said. Since his father was likewise threatened and assassinated, Dorméus took the threat seriously. His mother and sister fled to neighbouring Dominican Republic and he flew to Mexico, then crossed into San Diego to ask for asylum.
He lived in Pennsylvania for six months, but in Donald Trump’s America, Dorméus was told, his chances for asylum were slim and odds of deportation strong.
“It’s not good for us there now,” he said. “It’s not safe in the U.S., and I can’t go back to Haiti.”
So he surfed the Internet for instructions on how to get to Canada and, in June, took a bus to Plattsburgh, N.Y., then paid a taxi driver $70 for the 20-minute ride to the border. He crossed over, was promptly arrested by Canadian police officers and requested asylum.
At the Y, Haitians from the United States were lining up for rooms, but many were told they would be transferred because there was no more room at the inn.
This “increasing wave” of Haitian refugee claimants forced officials to open a temporary shelter in the Olympic Stadium Wednesday while scrambling to keep up with a demand they fear shows no signs of slowing.
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Since Montreal became a sanctuary city in February, Coderre said, asylum seekers have access to the city’s municipal services. The city is also helping PRAIDA find emergency housing.
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http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreals-big-o-used-to-shelter-haitian-refugees-flowing-from-u-s-to-canada
