Calls grow for asylum seekers working on COVID-19 front lines to be allowed to stay in Canada

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the crucial role asylum seekers and others with precarious status play in Quebec's economy.

They work long hours in meat-packing plants and warehouses, or tending to elderly people in long-term care homes — low-paying jobs that are difficult to fill.

But they may not be able to stay in Canada when deportations, which have nearly ground to a halt during the COVID-19 crisis, resume.

There are growing calls, however, from community organizers, advocates and opposition politicians in both Quebec and Ottawa for that to change.

"What we realize more and more is that those failed claimants are working in essential services most of the time," said Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, the president of Quebec's association of immigration lawyers.