Up to 2,300 asylum seekers entering Quebec through U.S. are under 18: minister
MONTREAL — Up to one-third of the 7,000 people who have crossed illegally into Quebec from the U.S. in the last six weeks are children, the province’s immigration minister said Wednesday.
Quebec’s education department is considering running programs for the kids — including teaching classes — inside the temporary shelters set up to house refugee applicants in the Montreal area, said Kathleen Weil.
“We received the demographic statistics last night,” Weil told reporters after meeting with the Intergovernmental Task Force on Irregular Migration, which included the prime minister.
“We need the children to feel secure,” she said. “They are here for an uncertain amount of time. The education department is looking into what to do with the kids in the meantime.”