Windsor has capacity and 'willingness to welcome,' advocate says as additional refugee claimants arrive
CBC
About 50 refugee claimants are arriving in Windsor, Ont., as the federal government tries to ease strain on the number of refugees coming into the Greater Toronto Area.
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) confirmed to CBC News the new claimants are coming to the city on Friday. Another 50 are travelling to Niagara Falls.
Those coming to Windsor had been in shelter at Toronto's Dominion Church, which has been housing hundreds of asylum seekers this summer but recently told CBC News they had had to turn people away.
IRCC said it received a request for support from the church, which was at capacity and had more people arriving.
"Of note, all claimants must consent to be transferred to a new jurisdiction," IRCC said in a statement.
The claimants will be housed in hotel rooms leased by the IRCC, said Stephen Lynn, the city's manager of social policy and planning.
Bringing claimants to Windsor comes as the number of refugees housed in the IRCC-leased hotels has declined recently.
At its busiest point, Windsor had about 1,400 people staying in local hotels leased by the IRCC. As of mid-September, Lynn said that number was around 600.
"...[T]here have been a significant number of asylum claimants that were once housed in the hotels here in Windsor that have left and gone elsewhere outside of the hotels," Lynn said.
"From my understanding the IRCC has capacity within the hotels that they're funding and they're going to be moving asylum claimants from the [Greater Toronto Area] to Windsor because there's current capacity within their hotels that they fund."
Lynn said that while deciding whether to transfer claimants to Windsor is a decision the IRCC makes, he said it's possible the region will receive more in the future, as long as Windsor has space.
"It's something that we're preparing for in terms of all of the partner organizations that are already on site and working with the current asylum claimants," he said.
Lynn said the refugees Windsor has had so far have been well-received by the community, with support services successfully able to help and, for example, recent first days of school for newly-settled children going off without a hitch.
"What I'm proud to say is that IRCC has indicated to us time and time again that Windsor is a wonderful model for a community response," Lynn said.