Report about the situation in Plattsburgh 30 March 2023

Here's a report on what  a Bridges Not Borders volunteer saw at the Plattsburgh bus station on Thursday, March 30. She spent 4 hours at the bus station from 3 pm onwards. Plus an update for March 31 and April 1st from an American volunteers.

Just as I arrived, the 3 pm bus had arrived from New York City and a family of about 5 people, who looked South Asian, was heading for a taxi. I tried to speak with them but they did not want to.  I asked the driver if he knew whether they met an exception to the Safe Third Country Agreement,  and he said he did not know. Later on his return to the Bus station, the taxi driver confirmed that the father of the family had siblings in Canada.

In the bus station (actually a convenience store with a restaurant, called the Mountain Mart), I found about 20 people. More arrived later. They had returned from Lacolle after being excluded from Canada and were carrying two brown envelopes with their exclusion papers, record of interview etc.  Initially there were 9-10 Kurdish men from Turkey, 5 Venezuelans (2 women and 3 men, including a 20 year-old woman who is 8 months pregnant), 3 adult Colombians including a woman with two small children, 2 Afghan men, an Uzbek man and 1 man from the DRC. I believe that others who showed up later were both Kurdish and Afghan. Many people had no money at all (or had spent their last money on return bus tickets) and I bought  sandwiches and drinks for most of them.

Communication was a challenge but one Kurdish man and 2 Afghans spoke reasonable English. A journalist from a Quebec media outlet spoke good Spanish and helped a lot. I was able to speak in French with the man from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

To my understanding none of the asylum seekers understood the ramifications of their exclusion. I had to explain that it meant they can never apply again for asylum in Canada unless they can appeal. I asked everyone if they had family members in Canada. Some had cousins, which is of no help for meeting an STCA exclusion. The man from DRC sent out texts to his extended family scattered in many countries to see if he could identify a qualifying family member in Canada.

The two Afghan men had been traveling for a year via Brazil, having left Afghanistan last March. They had spent their last money on the taxi back from Lacolle after their exclusion. We paid their tickets to take them to Boston from where they would travel onward to Maine (someone would pay for that part of the journey). They will hopefully be provided with shelter by a Maine charity. One Afghan man had worked with the US military and had saved the life of an American soldier severely wounded by a bomb ( I saw the photos). CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) removed two USB keys from the other Afghan man when they arrived at Lacolle. On leaving he was told that the USB keys were in his luggage. They were not. I called CBSA on Friday and was told they could  not be located. They contained all his important life information: ID documents, educational credentials, work experience. He is very upset and wonders how he can ever manage to survive in the US. CBSA lost his precious information and there is no accountability. 

The Kurdish men were able to buy tickets to return to NYC and Jersey City where most of them were going to try to find emergency shelter. I listened for a long time to the Kurdish man who spoke English - surrounded by the other very friendly Kurds who tried to understand our conversation -  as he communicated the sense of despair that Kurdish people in exile feel about their situation. It was so hectic,  I did not ask people the questions I wished I had asked about their journeys and interviews at Lacolle. I did take photos of some CBSA documents.

Four Venezuelans (including the 8 month pregnant young woman) had no money left and needed shelter, food and bus tickets. I was able to find an emergency shelter number in Plattsburgh. When the Venezuelan woman called the number, she could not communicate in Spanish with them so I spoke with them. We took them to a nearby hotel for the night. They were told to go to the social services (DSS) office the next morning to ask for bus tickets to go to New York city. The next morning they texted to ask for taxi money to go to the DSS office. A nice taxi driver we know took them for free. After a few hours they were given bus tickets, food vouchers and were brought back to the Plattsburgh bus station to travel onwards to NYC. After a long trip they have told me they are at a NYC shelter but as of mid afternoon had eaten nothing all day (Saturday).

UPDATES - Friday March 31 and Saturday April 1 2023
An American volunteer has been at the bus station on Friday and Saturday and reported that people continue to be returned to the US after exclusion under the STCA.

Friday March 31:  during a brief visit she met with about 10 people and assumed more would arrive. They were Venezuelan, Colombian and Turkish Kurds.

Saturday April 1:  A  2 hour visit.
The volunteer met a Ugandan family of 5 on their way to Lacolle. The mother says she has a close relative in Canada (hopefully they were accepted). About 8 people got off the bus from the border to Plattsburgh (it seems that refugees who have been sent back to the US by Lacolle CBSA are now taking the Montreal to Plattsburgh bus after being refused entry). Most of these 8 then got on a bus to NYC:  Venezuelans and a Nigerian mother with three young children. A Somali man returned from Lacolle in a taxi and was intending to go to Syracuse.

She also visited with a group of  6 Colombians who had been put up in the local hotel by social services. They had hoped to be included in the 15,000 'program' (accepting people from Central and South America in Canada), but they realized this was not going to happen.