It started last summer with 87, grew to 300, and most recently shot up to around 2,000 hotel rooms that were being utilized in Niagara Falls, Ont. to accommodate asylum seekers, With nearly 3,000 migrants having been transferred since July, community services of the city are feeling the pressure.
Migrants crossing from New York into Quebec at Roxham Road should not be seen as a burden, according to the executive director of a Montreal-based non-profit organization that offers support to refugee claimants.
A community group in Ontario s Niagara region says it was already dealing with a tripling of requests for assistance from asylum seekers before Ottawa recently began transferring more migrants to the province from Quebec.