They came to Toronto for safety. Instead African asylum seekers faced racism, homelessness, says new report

CBC

8 hours ago

The halls of Pilgrim Feast Tabernacles Church sit empty now, a stark contrast to 2023 when they were brimming with African asylum seekers who had nowhere else to go.
Several cultural and faith-based community organizations "banded together" to house and support the influx of refugee asylum seekers coming into the city at the time — many of whom had been forced to sleep on the streets without adequate municipal support, unable to access the city's overflowing shelter system — says Nadine Miller, the church's executive director.
"We became a house. We became mother, father, medical doctor, the whole nine yards until we could get [the government] to step in," said Miller. "[Asylum seekers] couldn't get in. They were stuck outside of the system."
Two years later, a new study by United Way Greater Toronto has detailed systemic anti-Black racism faced by newcomers in the Greater Toronto Area in 2023 — most of whom were Black and from African countries — as well as failures within the government system. The report also offers solutions needed to ensure asylum seekers don't end up on the streets and in churches again.
Toronto's ombudsman had previously found that the city's decision to limit refugees' access to shelter beds for several months in 2023 was anti-Black racism. The city manager disagreed with that finding last year.
At the time, Black-led groups were able to move more than 200 asylum seekers from the streets of downtown Toronto to shelters in indoor shelters, many of them churches.
Refugees denied jobs, faced foreign credential bias: report
The United Way study was done in partnership with the City of Toronto, Region of Peel and the Regional Municipality of York — areas that reported the most significant challenges.
While a lack of housing and employment were the biggest issues, asylum seekers also struggled with language barriers and limited access to responsive legal support, the report found.
Participants in the report shared their experiences of being unable to secure housing as refugees and getting denied jobs due to racism and foreign credential bias.
"Until this topic comes to the table, and society itself comes to discuss it, nothing is going to be changed," a service provider said in the report.
For the report's lead researcher, Jean de Dieu Basabose, the investigation resonated with his own experience of arriving in Canada from Rwanda in 2018.
Basabose says he too struggled to find a stable job as a newcomer, but he luckily found housing through friends. For asylum seekers, he says "racism came as an extra layer of challenge."
"This form of discrimination is deeply embedded in everyday life and institutions and it undermines the entire settlement process. And that makes it harder for African asylum seekers to find belonging and stability," he said.
While many study participants called for government intervention going forward, Basabose says social services need to do more to address cultural sensitivity and provide trauma-informed services for refugees.
WATCH | Toronto volunteers help asylum seekers find shelter in 2023
Toronto volunteers find shelter for asylum seekers forced to camp on sidewalk
2 years ago
Duration 3:34
Volunteer groups in Toronto stepped in to find shelters for dozens of asylum seekers who were forced to camp on a sidewalk because of a dispute between the city, the province of Ontario and the federal government over who would pay to house them. The city said it could no longer cope with the high number of claimants hoping to access a bed.
Report includes 29 recommendations
The report included 29 recommendations organized into three categories: programs and services, investments, and policy. Among them, a call for a centralized hub in the Greater Toronto Area to support African asylum seekers access reliable information and culturally-informed services.
It also recommended anti-racism training and increased government funding to community organizations.
Miller says Pilgrim Feast Tabernacles luckily had extra money to take people in in 2023, but the federal government should have taken more responsibility to support newcomers.
"If you're going to bring people in, you also need to take the responsibility of making sure that you put something in place just in case they are going to say that they need asylum," she said.
Some change already underway
Debbie Douglas, the executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, says Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has started a Canada-wide pilot project to support grassroots Black and racialized organizations through funding.
"We have lots of work to do on the ground," said Douglas, "[The funding] shows that there is a recognition that over the decades … Black communities have basically been sidelined and have been left out of that funding stream."
But Douglas says the eligibility criteria for IRCC funding is limited and doesn't include services for refugee claimants.
CBC News reached out to the IRCC for comment, but did not receive a response before deadline.
The City of Toronto, meanwhile, says work is underway on a dedicated refugee shelter system that includes settlement support and culturally responsive services.
In an emailed statement, the city said the initiative will include Toronto's first Black-led and Black-mandated shelter.
"But the City cannot meet this challenge alone," the statement read. "The City continues to advocate for sustainable, long-term funding and a coordinated regional response from all orders of government to manage the growing demand for emergency shelter and ensure new arrivals are welcomed with dignity."