Quebec has pledged to hand out welfare cheques to around 4,000 asylum seekers as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backtracks on his open invitation to migrants.
According to the province’s employment minister, the operation will take a full three days and he has not ruled out asking the Canadian government to help cover some of the welfare costs, reports the National Post.
With the minimum basic monthly payment being $623 (£387), that equates to nearly $2.6 million (Canadian) per month for those 4,000 asylum seekers alone.
Employment Minister Francois Blais said recipients will have to undergo a “revenue test” to determine if they are eligible for the full amount, but advised that there are additional funds available depending on the recipient’s family status.
“Quebec has responsibilities in immigration,” Blais told a news conference.
“Now they’ll be getting welfare, they’ll be able to rent an apartment and get out of temporary accommodation, which is a good thing because it is pretty costly.”
The migrants travelled via an unofficial crossing point between New York and Quebec after left wing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau extended an open invitation to migrants following President Trump issuing an executive order temporarily halting U.S. refugee resettlement. At the time, Trudeau tweeted: “Diversity is our strength. #WelcomeToCanada”
The move emulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s invitation to Middle Eastern and African migrants to come in unlimited numbers and resettle in Europe during the migrant crisis, which led to more than one million migrants entering the continent.
Prime Minister Trudeau has appeared to row back on the invitation, however, telling reporters this week: “For someone to successfully seek asylum it’s not about economic migration.”
“It’s about vulnerability, exposure to torture or death, or being stateless people. If they are seeking asylum we’ll evaluate them on the basis of what it is to be a refugee or asylum seeker,” he added.
Since the start of the year, more than 11,300 asylum seekers have crossed from the U.S. to Canada, nearly 7,000 arriving just since July alone.
Many of the migrants in Canada are from Haiti, who arrived in the U.S. following the 2010 earthquake. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that up to 58,000 Haitians could be repatriated as the emergency they were fleeing has ended.
Struggling to cope with the mass numbers of migrant arrivals, Montreal’s Olympic Stadium had to be turned into an emergency asylum centre.
Last week, Breitbart London reported that several migrants crossing the border into Canada were found with child pornography.