Asylum seekers exploiting Canada's student visa program in unsustainable surge

The immigration floodgates have been open for years in Canada and it’s finally reached an unsustainable, critical mass, with asylum seekers exploiting the international student study permit system.

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Canada has seen a staggering influx of asylum claims by international students over the last five years, soaring by an alarming 1,500%.

In 2018, there were 1,515 asylum claims by international students, which rose to an overwhelming 25, 465 in 2023, according to figures obtained by The Globe and Mail from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The figures show that colleges have more asylum-seeking claims than universities, with some in Ontario seeing a stark increase.

Ontario’s Seneca College, which “offers courses ranging from accounting to civil engineering and fashion,” the Globe and Mail reports, had “45 asylum claims in 2018.” That number rose to an astronomical 1,135 five years later in 2023, an increase of 2400%.

At Niagara College, this number rose from 20 in 2018 to 930 in 2023 — a jump of 4550%.

Conestoga College, meanwhile, saw 25 asylum claims among 6,000 study-permit holders in 2018. Five years later, there were 665 asylum claims among the 81,335 permit holders.

While Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada does not break down student asylum claims, its 2023 Annual Report on Immigration, delivered by Immigration Minister Marc Miller details how generally overwhelmed the system is.

“The in-Canada asylum system dealt with historic and unprecedented volumes of asylum claims, in the amount of 91,710, in 2022.” The report says many of the asylum seekers crossed at Roxham Road in Quebec, and that “the Government of Canada worked with provinces to provide interim housing and social support to those in need.”

“This marks a 44% increase from the previous record of 64,178 asylum claims in 2019,” the report reads. “Irregular crossings (e.g., through Roxham Road) made up 43% of claims in 2022, while refugee claims made inland and at official ports of entry made up 31% and 26%, respectively.”

Rebel News’ Quebec correspondent Alexa Lavoie reported extensively on the illegal border crossings at Roxham Road, before the crossing was closed, only to see asylum seekers diverted through official ports like Trudeau airport in Montreal.

The cost of the asylum seeker program from 2023 was staggering, which fell under a cost-sharing Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) between the feds, provincial and municipal governments, meant to prevent homelessness for asylum claimants.

Operating on a cost-sharing basis, the federal government has disbursed almost $700M to provinces and municipalities under IHAP for expenses incurred between 2017 and 2022, including approximately $450M to Quebec. (Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship Canada) continued to provide asylum claimants with healthcare coverage under the Interim Federal Health Program. Coverage is available for the full duration of the refugee determination process until claimants either transfer to provincial health insurance or are removed from Canada.

Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for the hotels, meals, clothing allowances, cab rides, and health-care costs for people who come into Canada illegally and may not even qualify for citizenship.

This budgetary allowance was increased in the recently unveiled federal Budget 2024, earmarking $1.1 billion over three years to IHAP.

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre refuses to condemn this massive influx of immigration.

This has been such a disaster in the making that even out of touch and out to lunch prime minister, Justin Trudeau, knows blaming the government before him is grasping for straws.

As Canada’s population quickly exceeds 41 million, with an immigrant arriving every minute according to real-time data from Statistics Canada, it’s clear that the lack of infrastructure and planning is causing the towns and cities across this country to buckle at the seams — compromising everything from access to food banks, to housing availability and affordability, and to receiving timely and appropriate health care.

Just last year, Trudeau claimed that Canada had a strong, rigorously applied immigration system.

Except, a year later, the real-time data shows the fallout these radical immigration policies have had on our country has not only placed undue burdens on the backs of Canadians, but also on new immigrants who are struggling to survive.

No one gets ahead these days, except, it seems, Canada's bloated bureaucracy.

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