Five asylum-seeking families welcomed by Chatham-Kent

Chatham-Kent is working with the federal government on a transit pilot project to welcome asylum seekers to the community — part of an effort to settle families into smaller municipalities.

Five families seeking asylum arrived in Chatham-Kent late Friday evening. 

"Chatham-Kent originally reached out to the city of Toronto when the city of Toronto put a call out to assist through the summer with some of the asylum seekers," said April Rietdyk, the municipality's general manager of community human services. 

"We are the ones who reached forward saying, we are here, we can help, let's have some conversations and see what we can do to help these folks out — both Toronto and the asylum seekers for sure. And, so, that's kind of how that came to play."

Arrived via Quebec

She explained all five families, all with children, entered Canada at Lacolle, Que. — which is not an official port of entry — adding that they are predominantly coming from African and Middle Eastern countries.

20 people have been welcomed in total, and they are still waiting on a decision on their asylum claims from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. It's a process Rietdyk says can take 20 months or more.

As of late April, more than 5,500 migrants have crossed illegally into Quebec so far this year — a big jump from the 2,000 or so who entered the province by that time in 2017.

"We're a welcoming community," said April Rietdyk, the municipality's general manager of community human services. 

"It's what we do. It's what we've always done throughout history, is welcome folks to our community and we'll continue to do that with these families while they wait the decision as to whether they can stay in Canada or not."

Staying at a hotel

In the meantime, the federal government has booked rooms for them at a local hotel for the next eight weeks, as the municipality works with the families to assist them in finding more permanent housing.

The families are still waiting on work visas, which can take about 30 days, Rietdyk said. 

She added that they will soon be looking for employment, and once they've found accommodations, they'll be paying for those accommodations themselves. They will also qualify for provincial benefits.

Rietdyk explained that while the families are tired from their journey, and are still adjusting to a big change, they're thrilled to have arrived.

'Happy to be here'

"They are certainly very grateful to Chatham-Kent. They couldn't say thank you enough in terms of being here and being in Canada, so they are very happy to be here."

She added that the kids are very cute and some of them are wondering why there's no snow.

Adult Language and Learning will also provide settlement services to the families, according to a news release from the municipality. The group will help assist each family by connecting them to the supports available in the community.

"It's quite rewarding as a community to be able to say, look, we're here, we're a welcoming community, we are willing to assist, we're willing to help families settle and integrate into our community, for families to find work, for children to get into schools while they await their asylum claims being heard by the government," Rietdyk said.

"I hope that things are positive all the way around at the end of this and you know, our small part in this will be successful."