'It's nerve-racking': Life on the Quebec border

[struggle4progress]

By Benjamin Shingler, CBC News
Posted: Feb 26, 2017 5:00 PM ET

The search lights flooding his windows, the helicopters overhead, the woman who knocked on his door late one night asking how to get to Canada — it has all become too much for Tim Lamb ...

"It's nerve-racking. It really sucks because it has such a nice yard," said Lamb, who relies on disability coverage to afford his one-room, $700-a-month trailer.

Lamb is among the residents whose quiet lives have been upended by the recent surge in illegal crossings into Quebec.

In January, 452 people claimed asylum at the Quebec border — a 230 per cent increase from the same month a year earlier. Experts attribute the increase to the political climate under U.S. President Donald Trump ...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-border-crossing-illegal-asylum-trump-residents-1.3999999

[roamer65]

1. Never thought I'd live to see the day refugees flee the US to Canada.

Sad, sad, day indeed.

[HoneyBadger]

2. It apparently is a thing....some interesting reasons

This opportunity is exactly why they decided to make the risky journey across farmers' fields, across the border and into Canada.

Iyal says he was facing jail, torture or even death at the hands of a rich and powerful member of parliament representing his region.

"The police in Ghana, they are very corrupt. If you don't have money to give the police, you can't get justice over there," he says.

Iyal won't explain why he's in danger, saying he'll tell the whole story at his refugee board hearing next month.

However, he says his wife and mother are still being threatened.

'I know I lost my fingers but it is better [than] to go back and be killed or go to jail.'
- Razak Iyal
"I talk to my wife and she go out for market or whatever, [and] they say, 'We know your husband is in Canada. We pray they deport him back so that we can get him.'

"I know I lost my fingers but it is better [than] to go back and be killed or go to jail."

Mohammed has a different story.

He says he was outed as a bisexual man during soccer training camp in Brazil in 2014 after the team manager found him with a same-sex partner.

"He started screaming and yelling at me, telling me I'm wicked, I'm a disgrace to my country," Mohammed says. "After he left, I lock my door then I started to be afraid."

Gay sex is illegal in Ghana. In its 2016-17 report, Amnesty International found lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people face discrimination, violence and police harassment. ​

Seidu Mohammed says that as a bisexual man he faces persecution in his home country of Ghana, where gay sex is illegal. (CBC News)

Mohammed says his father, a strict Muslim, disowned him. He believes he'll be persecuted — or worse — if he goes back, and he doesn't believe the government or police will protect him.

"I want Ghana government to get rid of the anti-gay attitude because they are doing discrimination," he says.

They say they don't regret their decision to cross on Christmas Eve, which turned out to be one of the coldest nights in southern Manitoba that month.

Mohammed says after his asylum claim was denied — he doesn't know why — and he was twice rejected for a work permit, he knew he was about to be deported.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/asylum-seekers-learning-to-cope-without-hands-after-frostbitten-walk-into-canada-1.3998305