Canada opens Olympic Stadium to house Haitian asylum seekers from the U.S.
Canadian officials have started a temporary shelter for people leaving the U.S. and fleeing to Canada looking for asylum, afraid that they’d be deported by the U.S. government, CNN reported. They’ve set up cots at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal to handle the influx of people who have crossed the border. Many are Haitians, according to CTV and CBC.
The refugees were living in the U.S. because of a policy from the Obama administration that allowed them to relocate after a 20110 earthquake. The deadline was supposed to end this month, but was moved until next January, CTV reported.
13,446 undocumented Haitians deported in July
According to Dominican officials, more than 13, 000 undocumented Haitian immigrants were deported from the Dominican Republic last month. Of the 13,446 Haitian nationals deported, 6,545 were intercepted in one of the 100 checkpoints along unofficial entry points on the Haiti / Dominican Republic border. The rest of the deportees were apprehended during migration sweeps in the country.
This is an unprecedented number of deportees for a single month, Lieutenant-General Maximo William Muñoz Delgado who heads the General Directorate of Migration (DGM), said. The typical number of deportees ranges between 5,000 and 6,000 each month.