The Death of an Asylum Seeker and the Shelter Crisis in Peel | The Local
The number of asylum seekers and refugees needing shelter has surged in recent years, leaving officials in suburban municipalities like Peel scrambling to respond.
近年来，寻求庇护者和需要庇护的难民人数激增，使得皮尔等郊区城市的官员忙于应对。
On her first day in Canada, Delphina Ngigi slept deeply and for a long time.
来到加拿大的第一天，德尔菲娜·恩吉吉 (Delphina Ngigi) 睡得很沉很长。
She had done the hard part: escaped the threats to her life back in Kenya, left behind her four kids, ages nine to 21, travelled over 11,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean, and sought asylum half the world away.
她已经完成了最困难的部分：逃离了肯尼亚的生命威胁，留下了四个年龄在 9 岁到 21 岁之间的孩子，穿越大西洋 11,000 多公里，在地球另一端寻求庇护。
She had to leave, her friend Lydia says, hesitating before explaining why.
她的朋友莉迪亚说，她不得不离开，在解释原因之前犹豫不决。
Delphina, 46, was bisexual in a country that has legally outlawed LGBTQ relationships.
46 岁的德尔菲娜 (Delphina) 是双性恋，她所在的国家在法律上禁止 LGBTQ 关系。
In high school, she’d been shunned for a relationship with a girl.
高中时，她因与一个女孩发生关系而被回避。
But she married a man soon after graduation and raised a family with him for 20 years.
但她毕业后不久就嫁给了一个男人，并与他一起组建了20年的家庭。
After he died last year, she began seeing a woman.
去年他去世后，她开始和一个女人约会。
In response, someone attacked her at the market.
作为回应，有人在市场上袭击了她。
Others tried to burn her house down.
其他人试图烧毁她的房子。
She arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Feb.
她于2月27日抵达多伦多皮尔逊国际机场。
15, 2024, with two big suitcases and a backpack.
2024年12月15日，带着两个大行李箱和一个背包。
There, she went through the long, complex airport procedure of declaring asylum: go to an agent, show them the visa you travelled with, and when they ask your purpose of visit, tell them you have nowhere safe to go.
在那里，她经历了漫长而复杂的机场申报庇护程序：去找代理人，向他们出示您旅行时所持的签证，当他们询问您的访问目的时，告诉他们您没有安全的地方可去。
There’s a lot of paperwork to exchange to prove your need for a new home: identity cards for immigration permits and résumés for a refugee claimant protection application.
要证明您需要新家，需要交换大量文件：用于移民许可证的身份证和用于难民申请人保护申请的简历。
Documents in hand, Delphina waited for Lydia’s housemate to pick her up.
德尔菲娜手里拿着文件，等待莉迪亚的室友来接她。
Lydia got home from work at midnight and woke up her old friend for a long-awaited reunion.
莉迪亚半夜下班回家，叫醒了她的老朋友，等待着期待已久的重聚。
On her second day in Canada, Delphina took the bus back to the airport at 6 a.m.
抵达加拿大的第二天，德尔菲娜早上 6 点乘坐巴士返回机场。
to officially submit her asylum application.
正式提交她的庇护申请。
In return, immigration staff handed her a package of welcome-to-Canada material: pamphlets and flyers with long lists of support services and shelters.
作为回报，移民工作人员递给她一包欢迎来到加拿大的材料：小册子和传单，上面列出了一长串支持服务和庇护所。
One included a phone number for central intake, the helpline for the homeless in the GTA that theoretically directs people to shelters with free beds.
其中一个包括中央收容所的电话号码，这是大多伦多地区无家可归者的帮助热线，理论上可以引导人们前往有免费床位的避难所。
On her third day in Canada—the Saturday of Family Day weekend—Delphina called the helpline and waited for someone to answer.
在加拿大的第三天，也就是家庭日周末的星期六，德尔菲娜拨打了帮助热线，等待有人接听。
Though they were longtime friends, Lydia couldn’t house Delphina for much longer.
尽管她们是多年的朋友，莉迪亚却无法在德尔菲娜身边呆太久。
Lydia is also an asylum seeker with limited resources and space; her landlord doesn’t permit guests.
莉迪亚也是一名资源和空间有限的寻求庇护者；她的房东不允许客人进来。
( The Local is not using her real name to protect her immigration process.) But Lydia knew the shelter system well, having navigated it herself when she arrived in the country to seek refuge the previous June.
（《当地人》没有使用她的真名来保护她的移民程序。）但莉迪亚非常了解庇护系统，去年六月抵达该国寻求庇护时，她自己就熟悉了该系统。
She knew that going to them directly, one after another, would be more helpful than listening to hold music on the phone.
她知道，一个接一个地直接去找他们，比听电话里的音乐更有帮助。
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The two friends took an hour-and-a-half bus ride to Dundas Shelter—an inconspicuous Mississauga homeless facility surrounded by strip malls.
两个朋友乘坐一个半小时的巴士来到了邓达斯收容所——密西沙加一个不起眼的无家可归者收容所，周围环绕着购物中心。
It was a frigid snowy day with the temperature hovering between -6 and -8 degrees Celsius.
那是一个寒冷的雪天，气温徘徊在-6至-8摄氏度之间。
In a video Lydia took, Delphina walks from the bus stop on the side of a six-lane roadway to the shelter.
在莉迪亚拍摄的一段视频中，德尔菲娜从六车道道路边的公交车站步行到避难所。
With her jacket hood over a big fluffy toque and thick scarf, she walks slowly in her winter boots and gives a tired smile to the camera as her friend excitedly narrates her first excursion—the beginning of her “life in Canada.”
当她的朋友兴奋地讲述她的第一次短途旅行——她“加拿大生活”的开始时，她戴着夹克兜帽，戴着大号蓬松无边无边帽和厚围巾，穿着冬靴慢慢地走着，对着镜头露出疲倦的微笑。
Lydia told Delphina to go to the shelter while she waited at a Tim Hortons in the strip mall just past the building.
莉迪亚让德尔菲娜去避难所，而她则在大楼旁边的商业街的蒂姆·霍顿 (Tim Hortons) 店等候。
“The moment you go to a shelter with someone, they turn you away thinking this person can accommodate you,” Lydia told The Local .
“当你和某人一起去避难所的那一刻，他们就会把你拒之门外，认为这个人可以容纳你，”莉迪亚告诉当地人。
The friends stayed in touch over WhatsApp.
朋友们通过 WhatsApp 保持联系。
At around 1 p.m., shelter staff told Delphina they didn’t have space and asked her to wait outside with a list of numbers for other shelters, including the central intake helpline.
下午 1 点左右，避难所工作人员告诉德尔菲娜，他们没有空间，并要求她在外面等候，并拿着其他避难所的号码清单，包括中央接收热线。
None of the calls resulted in a bed.
没有一个电话能提供床位。
“They never told her to leave,” Lydia says.
“他们从来没有让她离开，”莉迪亚说。
“When you tell people like us to wait, that means there is hope.”
“当你告诉像我们这样的人等待时，就意味着还有希望。”
With hope for a bed, Delphina waited outside in the cold for seven hours.
德尔菲娜满怀希望能得到一张床位，在寒冷的外面等了七个小时。
When Delphina arrived at Mississauga’s Dundas shelter, she was entering a system under unprecedented stress.
当德尔菲娜抵达密西沙加的邓达斯避难所时，她正在进入一个承受着前所未有的压力的系统。
The Region of Peel—a sprawling suburb just west of Toronto made up of the cities of Mississauga, Brampton, and the Town of Caledon—has generally had a manageable shelter system.
皮尔区是多伦多以西的一个庞大郊区，由密西沙加、布兰普顿和卡利登镇组成，总体上拥有易于管理的避难所系统。
That has changed dramatically in the past few years as Peel has found itself in a vortex of crises.
过去几年，情况发生了巨大变化，皮尔发现自己陷入了危机漩涡。
In the midst of a pandemic and a housing affordability crisis, the Region has seen a huge influx of asylum seekers with nowhere to go and few means to settle down.
在大流行和住房负担能力危机中，该地区大量寻求庇护者涌入，无处可去，也几乎没有办法安定下来。
Suddenly, issues more familiar to downtown urban centres were in Peel, with encampments and homeless people setting up at highway intersections, in between strip malls, and on the edges of residential neighbourhoods.
突然之间，市中心更熟悉的问题出现在皮尔区，营地和无家可归者在高速公路交叉口、商业街之间和住宅区边缘搭建起来。
As a result, Peel has been left to respond in ways that go far beyond what a suburban government is accustomed to—trying to help some of the world’s most vulnerable people while handcuffed by forces more powerful and complicated than any one municipality can handle.
结果，皮尔区的应对方式远远超出了郊区政府所习惯的方式——试图帮助世界上一些最弱势的人群，同时却受到比任何一个城市都更强大、更复杂的力量的束缚。
That response has been marked by tragedy.
这种反应是悲剧性的。
Before Delphina’s death, another asylum seeker died in a tent outside Dundas Shelter.
在德尔菲娜去世前，另一名寻求庇护者死在邓达斯庇护所外的帐篷里。
And just this past weekend, Peel Region confirmed a third person seeking asylum had passed away in the shelter system.
就在上周末，皮尔地区证实第三名寻求庇护的人在庇护所系统中去世。
They had not released their identity or cause of death at the time of publication.
截至发稿时，他们尚未公布自己的身份或死因。
“Our sincere sympathy is extended to this individual’s friends and family,” wrote Renee Wilson, a Peel spokesperson.
皮尔区发言人蕾妮·威尔逊 (Renee Wilson) 写道：“我们向此人的朋友和家人表示诚挚的同情。”
“Our gratitude is also extended to staff who provide care and shelter to the most vulnerable in our Region.”
“我们还要感谢为我们地区最弱势群体提供护理和庇护的工作人员。”
These deaths highlight the gravity of the crisis in Peel’s shelters.
这些死亡凸显了皮尔收容所危机的严重性。
And with multiple conflicts half the world away and a U.S. president pledging mass deportations, more and more asylum seekers will be looking to deeply overwhelmed and bandaged shelter systems, like Peel’s, for safety.
随着半个地球之外发生多起冲突，加上美国总统承诺大规模驱逐出境，越来越多的寻求庇护者将寻求像皮尔这样的不堪重负、缠满绷带的避难所系统来寻求安全。
For decades, the Region of Peel has been one of the only Ontario municipalities with a “no turn away” policy.
几十年来，皮尔区一直是安大略省仅有的实行“不拒绝”政策的城市之一。
In theory, this means that if someone—anyone—knocks at a shelter door, a space must be found, even if that space is a corner of the lobby.
从理论上讲，这意味着如果有人（任何人）敲击避难所的门，就必须找到一个空间，即使该空间是大厅的一角。
Under this policy, encampments were also not removed.
根据这项政策，营地也没有被拆除。
The policy was designed to be compassionate and responsive.
该政策旨在富有同情心且反应灵敏。
But in the past few years, it has become unsustainable.
但在过去的几年里，它已经变得不可持续。
The crisis began during the pandemic, when the Region’s shelters worked overtime to house a growing homeless population that had to be separated for health and safety concerns.
这场危机始于大流行期间，当时该地区的避难所加班加点地收容越来越多的无家可归者，出于健康和安全考虑，这些人不得不被分开。
To manage, Peel turned to an emergency measure it had never used before: it converted hotels into crisis shelters.
为了应对这一情况，皮尔区采取了一项以前从未使用过的紧急措施：将酒店改造成危机避难所。
“As long as I can remember, we would always have shelter overflow contracts in place with some hotels,” says Jason Hastings, Peel’s director of social development, planning, and partnerships since 2017.
自 2017 年起担任皮尔区社会发展、规划和合作关系总监的杰森·黑斯廷斯 (Jason Hastings) 表示：“从我记事起，我们就一直与一些酒店签订了收容所溢出合同。”
“You just hope you don’t have to use them.”
“你只是希望不必使用它们。”
When the province declared a state of emergency in March 2020, Peel transferred about 50 percent of its homeless population to five hotels, which were sitting empty as the pandemic halted travellers.
当该省于 2020 年 3 月宣布进入紧急状态时，皮尔区将约 50% 的无家可归者转移到了五家酒店，这些酒店因疫情导致旅客停止而空置。
“I remember it being a clear example of how to address COVID-19, but also other health issues,” says Dr. Lawrence Loh, then the-medical officer of health for Peel.
“我记得这是如何解决 COVID-19 以及其他健康问题的一个明显例子，”时任皮尔区卫生官员的 Lawrence Loh 博士说。
“The idea that if you give people their very basic need of a roof over their head, everything else falls in place.”
“这种想法是，如果你满足人们最基本的栖身之所的需求，那么其他一切都会水到渠成。”
When the pandemic-shuttered borders opened fully again in 2023, Canada saw a sharp rise in the number of asylum claimants, with the majority landing at Pearson.
当因大流行而关闭的边境于 2023 年再次完全开放时，加拿大的庇护申请者人数急剧增加，其中大多数抵达皮尔逊。
There were multiple reasons for this: Canada relaxed its asylum policies, and a greater number of people around the world were being displaced because of overlapping crises and conflicts.
造成这种情况的原因有多种：加拿大放松了庇护政策，世界各地有更多的人因重叠的危机和冲突而流离失所。
Plus, travel was cheap when the world opened up again, and by extension, so was seeking refuge and safety.
此外，当世界再次开放时，旅行变得便宜，进而寻求庇护和安全也变得便宜。
The Region wasn’t prepared for the number of people who arrived; no city was.
该地区没有为抵达的人数做好准备；没有城市是。
Historically, asylum seekers and refugees did not remain in shelters for prolonged periods, transitioning quickly to permanent housing.
从历史上看，寻求庇护者和难民不会长时间留在庇护所，而是很快过渡到永久住房。
But a crippling housing unaffordability crisis and lacklustre settlement supports have led to a huge increase in the number of homeless refugees in a shelter system not designed to help them.
但严重的住房负担不起危机和定居点支持乏善可陈，导致无家可归的难民人数大幅增加，而这些难民住在并非旨在帮助他们的庇护所系统中。
According to a report by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario released this month, between 2021 and 2024 the number of chronically homeless asylum seekers and refugees rose nearly sixfold, from 1,834 to 10,552.
根据安大略省市政协会本月发布的一份报告，2021年至2024年间，长期无家可归的寻求庇护者和难民人数增加了近六倍，从1,834人增加到10,552人。
When Delphina arrived last February, Peel’s shelters were trying to accommodate quadruple the number of people they usually housed.
当德尔菲娜去年二月抵达时，皮尔的避难所正试图容纳四倍于平时的人数。
Before July 2023, asylum seekers took up an average of four to five percent of space.
2023 年 7 月之前，寻求庇护者平均占据 4% 到 5% 的空间。
By the summer, more than 1,500 refugees occupied 71 percent of Peel’s shelter beds.
到了夏天，超过 1,500 名难民占据了皮尔区 71% 的庇护床位。
The impacts were visible across the Region.
整个地区的影响都是显而易见的。
“I would never have imagined there would be tents in the middle of a subdivision in the suburbs,” says Zena Chaudhry, CEO of Sakeenah Canada, whose mandate includes providing transitional shelters for women and asylum seekers in Ontario.
“我从来没有想象过郊区的一个小区中间会有帐篷，”Sakeenah Canada 首席执行官泽娜·乔杜里 (Zena Chaudhry) 说，该公司的职责包括为安大略省的妇女和寻求庇护者提供过渡庇护所。
Peel’s shelters were underfunded and overworked, she says, and their phones were ringing off the hook.
她说，皮尔的庇护所资金不足，而且工作过度，他们的电话一直响个不停。
Sakeenah saw a 700 percent increase in shelter requests during COVID, almost half of whom were asylum seekers.
新冠疫情期间，Sakeenah 的庇护申请增加了 700%，其中近一半是寻求庇护者。
The shelter system was collapsing, she says.
她说，庇护所系统正在崩溃。
“There was no central way for all the shelters to contact each other so we were doing it ourselves.”
“所有避难所之间没有中央联系方式，所以我们只能自己做。”
Peel turned 10 additional hotels into crisis shelters just for asylum seekers.
皮尔区又将 10 家酒店改造成危机庇护所，专门为寻求庇护者提供服务。
The provincial and federal governments helped foot the room bills.
省政府和联邦政府帮助支付房间费用。
Social workers and nurses visited every day with health care support.
社会工作者和护士每天都会上门提供医疗保健支持。
Food services and banks supplied the meals.
食品服务和银行提供膳食。
Community members stepped up for anything and everything else: legal support, clothing, the search for permanent housing, and fun.
社区成员竭尽全力争取一切：法律支持、衣服、寻找永久住房和娱乐。
The Local spoke to 25 asylum seekers, social workers, shelter operators, elected officials, and homeless health experts who all commended Peel’s response.
《The Local》采访了 25 名寻求庇护者、社会工作者、庇护所经营者、民选官员和无家可归者健康专家，他们都对皮尔的应对措施表示赞赏。
They described it as “compassionate,” “creative,” “responsive,” and “necessary.” The system worked, they say.
他们将其描述为“富有同情心”、“有创造力”、“反应灵敏”和“必要”。他们说，这个系统有效。
It literally saved lives.
它确实拯救了生命。
In the summer of 2023, for the first time in its 50-year history, Peel shelters turned people away.
2023 年夏天，皮尔区避难所 50 年历史上首次将人们拒之门外。
By the time Delphina arrived, 300 asylum seekers had been left to fend for themselves because there were no beds anywhere in Mississauga, Brampton, or Caledon.
当德尔菲娜到达时，300 名寻求庇护者已经自生自灭，因为密西沙加、布兰普顿或卡利登都没有床位。
Peel’s shelter system had never been this strained.
皮尔区的避难所系统从未如此紧张。
To cope, Peel boosted its hotel-turned-shelters, transforming a temporary measure into a permanent band-aid solution.
为了应对这一问题，皮尔区加强了由酒店改建的避难所，将临时措施转变为永久性的创可贴解决方案。
“There was no other viable alternative, frankly,” Hastings says.
“坦率地说，没有其他可行的选择，”黑斯廷斯说。
That was true during the pandemic and true again when the asylum crisis “hit so hard and fast.”
在大流行期间是这样，当庇护危机“来得如此猛烈和迅速”时也是如此。
“We just don’t have empty housing facilities sitting around to shelter people,” Hastings added.
黑斯廷斯补充道：“我们只是没有空置的住房设施来为人们提供庇护。”
As he recalls, the Region kept looking at the spike in asylum seekers, wondering if it would subside and things would go back to normal.
据他回忆，该地区一直在关注寻求庇护者的激增，想知道这种情况是否会消退，事情会恢复正常。
“They didn’t,” he says.
“他们没有，”他说。
“The new normal is a pretty steady volume of asylum claimants coming in every week.”
“新常态是每周都有相当稳定的庇护申请者涌入。”
For the past year, the Region has been fighting for funding to create a dedicated system to handle these asylum seekers—a rare move by a municipality, as immigration is a federal responsibility.
在过去的一年里，该地区一直在争取资金，以建立一个专门的系统来处理这些寻求庇护者——这是市政府罕见的举动，因为移民是联邦的责任。
“We’re trying to get there, but it’s really hard,” Hastings says.
“我们正在努力实现这一目标，但这真的很难，”黑斯廷斯说。
But doing so is the difference between life and death.
但这样做却是生与死的区别。
Peel’s shelters reached a tipping point in July 2023, when dozens of refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from African countries, began camping outside a shelter on Peter Street in downtown Toronto.
2023 年 7 月，皮尔区的避难所达到了临界点，当时数十名难民和寻求庇护者（主要来自非洲国家）开始在多伦多市中心彼得街的避难所外露营。
They had been directed there from the airport, but the shelter was at capacity and didn’t have spare beds.
他们是从机场被引导到那里的，但避难所已满员，没有多余的床位。
It had already been turning away asylum seekers for a month.
它已经拒绝寻求庇护者一个月了。
So they turned suitcases and scraps of litter into a makeshift refugee camp in the heart of the city’s financial district.
因此，他们将手提箱和垃圾碎片变成了位于该市金融区中心的临时难民营。
For five weeks, asylum seekers—mostly Black from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania—slept on concrete with only cardboard to cover them.
五个星期以来，寻求庇护者（主要是来自尼日利亚、肯尼亚、乌干达、加纳和坦桑尼亚的黑人）睡在混凝土上，只用纸板盖住。
Brampton resident Gwyneth Chapman was one of the first to respond to their needs as a volunteer and concerned citizen.
布兰普顿居民格温妮丝·查普曼 (Gwyneth Chapman) 是最先响应他们需求的志愿者和热心公民之一。
“I’m not a mushy emotional person but I just burst into tears,” she says.
“我不是一个情绪化的人，但我只是哭了，”她说。
A City of Brampton staffer, Chapman tried to call her municipal contacts to get the asylum seekers into a school, a gym, anywhere safe from the weather.
查普曼是宾顿市的一名工作人员，她试图给市政联系人打电话，让寻求庇护者进入学校、健身房等任何不受天气影响的地方。
She sent videos and photos to all her group chats, alerting anyone, everyone to help.
她向所有群聊发送了视频和照片，提醒所有人提供帮助。
One of the first to respond to Chapman’s “bat signal” was Pamela Dolphy.
帕梅拉·多尔菲 (Pamela Dolphy) 是最早对查普曼的“蝙蝠信号”做出反应的人之一。
She’s lived in Brampton for 40 years and, as a resident, worker, artist, and longtime community volunteer, watched the city “go from nothing to something.”
她在布兰普顿生活了 40 年，作为一名居民、工人、艺术家和长期社区志愿者，见证了这座城市“从无到有”。
Dolphy works at a medical supply company near the Dundas Shelter, and regularly visits to deliver collected blankets, clothes, socks, gloves, and food.
多尔菲在邓达斯避难所附近的一家医疗用品公司工作，定期前往运送收集到的毯子、衣服、袜子、手套和食物。
“You’re bombarded by the crowd because everyone needs things.
“你会受到人群的轰炸，因为每个人都需要东西。
They’re so desperate, they’re tripping over each other to get to you,” she says.
他们非常绝望，为了找到你而互相绊倒，”她说。
“The worst feeling is when you run out of food or stuff.
“最糟糕的感觉是当你没有食物或东西时。
It’s never enough.”
这永远都不够。”
When she arrived at Peter Street to help last July, Dolphy watched an airport shuttle bus park at an intersection and unload six people with suitcases.
去年七月，当她到达彼得街帮忙时，多菲看到一辆机场班车停在十字路口，并卸下了六个带着行李箱的人。
The bus left quickly, and the group joined the crowd, slowly dragging their suitcases until they found a free square of pavement to sit on.
巴士很快就开走了，这群人加入了人群，慢慢地拖着行李箱，直到找到一块空的人行道可以坐下。
“It felt like a third-world country, but it was downtown Toronto,” she says.
“感觉就像一个第三世界国家，但它是多伦多市中心，”她说。
Chapman and Dolphy stayed at the encampment the whole night, until about 2 or 3 a.m., amid the wind and rain.
查普曼和多菲在风雨中在营地呆了一整夜，直到凌晨两三点。
By daylight, volunteers in Brampton and Toronto began transporting people to churches, shelters, and their own homes.
白天，布兰普顿和多伦多的志愿者开始将人们运送到教堂、避难所和他们自己的家中。
“I thought we’d get them off the street, take care of them, get them community, medical help, translators, paperwork, and everything would be fine,” Chapman says.
“我以为我们会让他们离开街道，照顾他们，为他们提供社区，医疗帮助，翻译，文书工作，一切都会好起来的，”查普曼说。
“But it wasn’t.
“但事实并非如此。
People kept coming, and nobody was helping.
人们源源不断地涌来，却没有人提供帮助。
So, we had to do a lot of ripping and roaring to get them all beds.”
因此，我们必须进行大量的撕扯和咆哮才能让它们都得到床铺。”
Suddenly, asylum seekers became pawns in this jurisdictional battle over who is responsible for housing them—and in this case, no government seemed willing to step up.
突然之间，寻求庇护者成为了这场关于谁负责为他们提供住房的管辖权争夺战中的棋子——在这种情况下，似乎没有政府愿意挺身而出。
The federal government is in charge of the system that brings people to refuge and the province dictates housing policy, but municipalities oversee the shelter system.
联邦政府负责将人们带到避难所的系统，省政府负责制定住房政策，但市政府负责监督避难所系统。
A recent report by Toronto’s Ombudsman found the City’s response was “unfair, poorly planned, and inconsistent” with the municipality’s commitment to housing as a human right.
多伦多监察员最近的一份报告发现，该市的回应“不公平、计划不周且不一致”，不符合该市政府将住房作为一项人权的承诺。
The Ombudsman also deemed that this lacklustre response to African asylum seekers constituted “systemic discrimination” and anti-Black racism in the report, which the city manager has refused to accept.
监察员还认为，报告中对非洲寻求庇护者的这种平淡反应构成了“系统性歧视”和反黑人种族主义，但城市管理者拒绝接受这一点。
“Imagine you leave your home, escape some horrors and come to a new place, only to live on the streets,” says Michelle Meghie, another volunteer and longtime Mississauga resident who responded to the situation.
“想象一下，你离开家，逃离一些恐怖，来到一个新的地方，却只能流落街头，”另一位志愿者、米西索加的长期居民米歇尔·梅吉（Michelle Meghie）对这一情况做出了回应。
For these volunteers and advocates, there was but one immediate solution on everyone’s lips: send them to Peel, which would not turn them away.
对于这些志愿者和倡导者来说，每个人都在谈论一个直接的解决方案：将他们送到皮尔，这不会将他们拒之门外。
And according to Meghie, the volunteers moved walls to create new spaces for asylum seekers in the suburban shelter system.
据梅吉说，志愿者们拆除了墙壁，为郊区庇护所系统中的寻求庇护者创造了新的空间。
“When Toronto is full, the overflow goes to Peel,” says Kizito Musabimana, founder of the Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre.
卢旺达加拿大治疗中心创始人基齐托·穆萨比马纳 (Kizito Musabimana) 表示：“当多伦多人满为患时，多余的部分就会流向皮尔区。”
Asylum seekers at Peter Street, he says, were already being told to go to Peel by Toronto shelters, and in that moment, there were a lot of good intentions but no centralized, coordinated effort.
他说，多伦多庇护所已经告知彼得街的寻求庇护者前往皮尔，在那一刻，有很多良好的意愿，但没有集中、协调的努力。
“It was very clear this was not a priority,” he says.
“很明显这不是一个优先事项，”他说。
“And everyone knows: Peel will put you up.”
“每个人都知道：皮尔会让你陷入困境。”
The overflow from Peter Street required the Region of Peel to open additional hotel-turned-shelters and get approval and funding for new shelter space from regional council, but all of that took a lot of time.
彼得街的人满为患，要求皮尔区开设更多由酒店改建的避难所，并获得地区议会的批准和资金用于新的避难所空间，但所有这些都花了很多时间。
When it comes to asylum seekers, “when governments are slow to respond, people fall through the cracks and die,” Musabimana says .
当谈到寻求庇护者时，“当政府反应缓慢时，人们就会被忽视并死亡，”穆萨比马纳说。
And that’s unfortunately what happened.
不幸的是，这就是发生的事情。
Four months later (and three months before Delphina’s death), in November 2023, a Nigerian man in his 40s died in a tent outside the Dundas Shelter.
四个月后（德尔菲娜去世前三个月），也就是 2023 年 11 月，一名 40 多岁的尼日利亚男子在 Dundas Shelter 外的一个帐篷里死亡。
Little is known about him; immigration officials told The Local they can’t share details.
人们对他知之甚少。移民官员告诉当地媒体，他们无法透露细节。
“Globalization feels so real in Peel because when things erupt in other parts of the world you see it on your doorstep”
“皮尔区的全球化感觉如此真实，因为当世界其他地方发生事态爆发时，你就可以在家门口看到它”
After the death, Hastings, Peel’s director of social development planning, drove to the parking lot full of tents opposite the shelter and watched people comfort each other.
死者去世后，皮尔区社会发展规划主任黑斯廷斯开车来到避难所对面停满帐篷的停车场，看着人们互相安慰。
“Staff are feeling the deaths, 100 percent,” he says.
“工作人员百分百感受到了死亡，”他说。
“We care deeply about these people…It’s not lost on us.”
“我们非常关心这些人……我们并没有忘记这一点。”
Hastings says there were “extenuating circumstances” in both this death and Delphina’s that he is unable to share.
黑斯廷斯表示，这起死亡事件和德尔菲娜的死亡事件都有“情有可原的情况”，但他无法透露。
But he agrees with advocates and social workers that those deaths weren’t the first indication the system was struggling—just the results of warning signs ignored.
但他同意倡导者和社会工作者的观点，即这些死亡并不是系统陷入困境的第一个迹象——只是警告信号被忽视的结果。
Weeks after the death, Dolphy saw another airport shuttle bus drop off a woman and her six-year-old boy at the intersection just past Dundas shelter.
死亡几周后，多尔菲看到另一辆机场班车在邓达斯避难所附近的十字路口载下了一名妇女和她六岁的儿子。
There were already dozens of people camped outside.
外面已经有数十人扎营了。
“I took her inside and asked where I could take her,” Dolphy says.
“我带她进去，问我可以带她去哪里，”多尔菲说。
“They didn’t have an answer for me.”
“他们没有给我答案。”
“It was just heartbreaking for me,” she says.
“这对我来说真是令人心碎，”她说。
“I assumed the government would rent a warehouse, rent a hotel, rent something and put them somewhere safe.
“我以为政府会租一个仓库，租一家酒店，租一些东西，然后把它们放在安全的地方。
But it’s been left up to the shelter to create space that doesn’t exist.”
但庇护所却要自己创造并不存在的空间。”
When Peel took in Peter Street claimants, it entered uncharted territory.
当皮尔区接纳彼得街索赔人时，它进入了未知领域。
“Helping asylum seekers has never been the jurisdiction of municipalities,” Hastings says.
“帮助寻求庇护者从来都不是市政当局的管辖范围，”黑斯廷斯说。
“But you know, the buck stops with us effectively.
“但你知道，责任实际上由我们承担。
People land in our communities and you have to help them, and so that’s what we do.”
人们来到我们的社区，你必须帮助他们，这就是我们所做的。”
The challenge, he says, is the Region can’t sustain providing this kind of support on its own.
他说，挑战在于该地区无法独自持续提供这种支持。
To start, the shelter system is designed to help the domestic homeless population and not asylum seekers, who often don’t have the means to rent or buy homes until they’re granted permits to live and work here, which can take months, sometimes years.
首先，庇护所系统旨在帮助国内无家可归者，而不是寻求庇护者，他们通常没有办法租用或购买房屋，直到获得在这里生活和工作的许可，这可能需要数月甚至数年的时间。
“From day one when you enter into a municipal shelter system, we are working with them to start to plan their exit, right?” Hastings says.
“从进入市政避难所系统的第一天起，我们就与他们合作，开始计划他们的退出，对吗？”黑斯廷斯说。
“These are always viewed as short-term stays, but being an asylum [seeker] isn’t a short-term situation.”
“这些总是被视为短期居留，但成为一名[寻求庇护者]并不是一种短期情况。”
Then there’s the challenge of costs for cash-strapped municipalities like Peel.
对于像皮尔这样资金短缺的城市来说，成本也面临着挑战。
While hotels have helped to manage the shelter overflow for now, sending hotel bills to the federal government couldn’t be a long-term strategy, Hastings says.
黑斯廷斯表示，虽然目前酒店已经帮助解决了收容所过多的问题，但向联邦政府发送酒店账单并不是一个长期策略。
It’s expensive for taxpayers: one hotel room costs about $220 per day, whereas a bed in a shelter would cost about $90 a day.
对于纳税人来说，这很昂贵：一间酒店房间每天的费用约为 220 美元，而避难所的一张床位每天的费用约为 90 美元。
Hastings says there are logistical challenges, too.
黑斯廷斯表示，也存在后勤方面的挑战。
Hotel-turned-shelters are comfortable, so there is less incentive to move into independent housing.
由酒店改建的庇护所很舒适，因此搬进独立住房的动力较小。
Plus, coordinating with settlement agencies requires a large and inefficient use of human resources.
此外，与安置机构的协调需要大量且低效的人力资源利用。
For all these reasons, Peel urged the federal government to help them establish the first welcome centre in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area—a hub in central Mississauga where all asylum seekers can come to straight from the airport and stay for five days while someone helps find them housing somewhere in southwestern Ontario that has space and ability to host them properly.
出于所有这些原因，皮尔敦促联邦政府帮助他们在大多伦多和汉密尔顿地区建立第一个欢迎中心——米西索加中部的一个中心，所有寻求庇护者都可以从机场直接来到这里并停留五天，同时有人帮助他们在安大略省西南部某个有空间和能力的地方找到住房并妥善接待他们。
After months of back and forth, delays and repeated promises, last summer, Peel received $22 million to build and operate this centre, along with two additional asylum-focused shelters.
经过几个月的反复、拖延和反复承诺，去年夏天，皮尔获得了 2200 万美元来建设和运营这个中心，以及另外两个以庇护为重点的庇护所。
The welcome centre opened the first of its four floors on Nov.
迎宾中心四层楼中的第一层已于 11 月 12 日开放。
1.
1.
The plan is to eventually have 680 beds over two floors, with the remainder of the building dedicated to settlement work, mainly figuring out where the best available temporary homes are.
该计划最终将在两层楼内设置 680 个床位，建筑的其余部分专门用于安置工作，主要是找出最好的临时住所在哪里。
The federal government has reimbursed 95 percent of the Region’s $50-million hotel bill and $22-million operating costs for the two new asylum shelters.
联邦政府已经偿还了该地区 5000 万美元的酒店账单和两个新庇护所 2200 万美元的运营成本的 95%。
But by 2026, the federal government will only cover 75 percent of these costs, increasing the cost burden on Peel and any other municipality sheltering asylum seekers.
但到 2026 年，联邦政府将只能承担其中 75% 的费用，这会增加皮尔区和任何其他庇护寻求庇护者的城市的成本负担。
The federal government is justifying this by pitching a national system of “sustainable, permanent transition housing” for asylum seekers.
联邦政府通过为寻求庇护者建立“可持续、永久过渡住房”的国家体系来证明这一点。
The idea is to create multiple reception centres and “leverage the full shelter capacity across a number of Ontario municipalities,” and across the country, Hastings says.
黑斯廷斯说，这个想法是建立多个接待中心，并“充分利用安大略省多个市镇和全国各地的避难所能力”。
He likes the idea but it does nothing to help him right now.
他喜欢这个主意，但现在对他没有任何帮助。
“And it won’t help me probably for another six to 12 months,” he says, maybe longer.
“而且这可能在接下来的 6 到 12 个月内对我没有帮助，”他说，也许更长时间。
It’s unclear how quickly the federal government can set them up with enough employees and beds to handle a growing flow of people.
目前尚不清楚联邦政府能够多快为它们配备足够的员工和床位来应对不断增长的人流。
The conversations are ongoing between the two levels of government.
两级政府之间的对话正在进行中。
“There is no simple answer but we are confident that with full engagement from all levels of government, we can implement real long-term, sustainable, and compassionate measures that will ensure that the most vulnerable newcomers to Canada have a roof over their heads,” says Jeffrey MacDonald, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, in an email to The Local .
加拿大移民、难民和公民部发言人杰弗里·麦克唐纳(Jeffrey MacDonald)在给《当地报》的电子邮件中表示：“没有简单的答案，但我们相信，在各级政府的充分参与下，我们可以实施真正的长期、可持续和富有同情心的措施，确保加拿大最脆弱的新移民有一个栖身之所。”
Until then, the Region is doing everything it possibly can to bolster its two asylum-focused shelters, Hastings says.
黑斯廷斯说，在那之前，该地区正在尽一切努力加强其两个以庇护为重点的庇护所。
By February, only three hotels will be used as overflow spaces.
到二月份，只有三家酒店将被用作溢出空间。
Still, the gaps are much bigger than what one of Ontario’s largest municipalities can do, and maybe that’s why Chapman and other social workers remain skeptical.
尽管如此，差距仍然比安大略省最大的市政府之一所能做的要大得多，也许这就是查普曼和其他社会工作者仍然持怀疑态度的原因。
Social work isn’t an exact science: it’s about people and how systems and institutions respond to their evolving needs and wants.
社会工作不是一门精确的科学：它是关于人以及系统和机构如何应对他们不断变化的需求和愿望。
Having a welcome centre is “a good thing but it’s not a solution,” Chapman says.
查普曼说，设立欢迎中心是“一件好事，但它不是一个解决方案”。
Will it have an updated list all the time of space availability in every shelter across the region, maybe the province?
是否会在整个地区（也许是全省）每个避难所的可用空间的所有时间里都有一个更新的列表？
Are there backup plans in case shelter spaces run out again?
如果避难所空间再次耗尽，是否有备用计划？
Will the federal government better coordinate with municipalities next time there’s a spike in asylum seekers so they’re not caught off guard?
下次寻求庇护者激增时，联邦政府是否会更好地与市政府协调，以免他们措手不及？
Will asylum seekers know what to expect once they walk out the doors of the airport?
寻求庇护者走出机场后会知道会发生什么吗？
We're able to produce impactful, award-winning journalism thanks to the generous support of readers.
感谢读者的慷慨支持，我们能够制作出有影响力、屡获殊荣的新闻报道。
By supporting The Local, you're contributing to a new kind of journalism—in-depth, non-profit, from corners of Toronto too often overlooked.
通过支持 The Local，您将在多伦多经常被忽视的角落为一种新型新闻事业做出贡献——深入、非营利。
There are no answers to these questions, which is concerning when everyone agrees that helping a rapidly growing population of homeless people, including asylum seekers, is just going to get harder.
这些问题没有答案，当每个人都同意帮助快速增长的无家可归者（包括寻求庇护者）的人数只会变得越来越困难时，这令人担忧。
“It’s only going to get worse and worse,” Chaudhry from Sakeenah Homes says.
“情况只会变得越来越糟，”Sakeenah Homes 的乔杜里说。
Even though the federal government has put a temporary pause on immigration, which includes limiting refugee and asylum applications for the first time, Peel is expecting asylum seekers to increase in its shelter system.
尽管联邦政府暂时暂停了移民，其中包括首次限制难民和庇护申请，但皮尔预计庇护系统中的寻求庇护者将会增加。
By Peel’s calculation, there are 250,000 non-permanent residents in the Region.
根据皮尔的计算，该地区有 25 万非永久居民。
Hastings expects 220,000 of their visas to expire under the new pause.
黑斯廷斯预计，在新的暂停措施下，他们将有 22 万份签证到期。
There is a “pretty realistic risk,” he says, that many of these people stay in Peel.
他说，这些人中有许多人留在皮尔，存在“相当现实的风险”。
“Without access to any government support and the desperation that breeds, that means that, somehow, they might end up in our system just to survive,” he says.
他说：“如果得不到任何政府支持，绝望就会滋生，这意味着，不知何故，他们可能最终会进入我们的系统只是为了生存。”
“I’m afraid for us; it’s a bit of a wait-and-see approach.”
“我担心我们；这有点观望。”
That’s because there are also other unpredictable global forces and pressures at play.
这是因为还有其他不可预测的全球力量和压力在起作用。
Hastings is already working with colleagues across government levels to prepare for an influx of claimants from Gaza and Lebanon, where conflict continues to displace massive numbers of people.
黑斯廷斯已经与各级政府的同事合作，为来自加沙和黎巴嫩的大量索赔人涌入做好准备，这两个国家的冲突继续导致大量人口流离失所。
This month, U.S. President Donald Trump will take office with a promise to deport 11 million undocumented people.
本月，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普将就职，承诺驱逐 1100 万无证人员。
To put that in context, Peel’s newly expanded shelter system can support 1,280 asylum seekers.
综合来看，皮尔区新扩建的庇护所系统可以容纳 1,280 名寻求庇护者。
If even one percent of those deported from the United States (or 110,000 people) ended up in the GTA, the system would be beyond overwhelmed.
即使被美国驱逐出境的人中的百分之一（或 110,000 人）最终进入大多伦多地区，该系统也将不堪重负。
“Never have I seen geopolitical events and other things taking place in the world have such a dramatic and direct impact on work we’re doing on the ground in Canada,” Hastings says.
“我从未见过地缘政治事件和世界上发生的其他事情对我们在加拿大开展的工作产生如此巨大和直接的影响，”黑斯廷斯说。
“Globalization feels so real in Peel because when things erupt in other parts of the world, you see it on your doorstep because…Peel sort of absorbs the world,” he says.
“全球化在皮尔感觉如此真实，因为当事情在世界其他地方爆发时，你会在家门口看到它，因为……皮尔有点吸收了世界，”他说。
“I can’t imagine a bigger melting pot of different people all coming together in the same community.”
“我无法想象一个更大的熔炉，不同的人聚集在同一个社区。”
But as everyone keeps repeating over and over again, there are dire repercussions of messing up in this work.
但由于每个人都一遍又一遍地重复，这项工作搞砸了会产生可怕的后果。
And while Peel Region may be leading the way in showing a possible compassionate and collaborative response by creating a system from scratch, at least one person who could have benefitted suffered the consequences of a system unprepared to help her.
虽然皮尔区可能通过从头开始创建一个系统，在展示可能的同情和协作反应方面发挥带头作用，但至少有一个本来可以受益的人遭受了一个没有准备好帮助她的系统带来的后果。
On Feb.
二月。
18—her third day in Canada—Delphina waited outside Dundas Shelter alone for seven hours, experiencing the full strength of her first Canadian winter day.
18 日，也就是她在加拿大的第三天，德尔菲娜独自在 Dundas Shelter 外等待了 7 个小时，体验了加拿大第一个冬日的全部强度。
There’s no place to sit outside the shelter except pavement and frozen grass.
除了人行道和结冰的草地外，避难所外没有地方可以坐下。
At 8 p.m.
晚上 8 点
the shelter let her into their reception area—a small entryway with no seating, surrounded by locked doors—and told her to sit on her backpack.
避难所让她进入他们的接待区——一个没有座位的小入口，周围都是锁着的门——并让她坐在背包上。
At 11 p.m., the shelter gave her a chair.
晚上11点，收容所给了她一张椅子。
A man gave her a phone charger to use; she didn’t have one.
一名男子给了她一个手机充电器供她使用；她没有。
The next day—Delphina’s fourth day in Canada—just before 3 p.m., Lydia visited her, a phone charger in hand.
第二天，也就是德尔菲娜在加拿大的第四天，下午 3 点左右，莉迪亚来看望了她，手里拿着一个手机充电器。
Delphina said she had received breakfast but not lunch, and was hoping for dinner.
德尔菲娜说她只吃了早餐，但没有吃午餐，希望能吃到晚餐。
She had seen two people be taken to other shelters and was optimistic she’d get a bed.
她看到两个人被带到其他避难所，并乐观地认为自己能得到一张床位。
Lydia told Delphina to refresh with a shower, then left her friend.
莉迪亚让德尔菲娜去冲个澡恢复精神，然后离开了她的朋友。
Barely an hour later, Lydia got a call from a social worker at Trillium Hospital.
不到一个小时后，莉迪亚接到了延龄草医院社会工作者的电话。
“Do you know Delphina?” the voice on the phone asked.
“你认识德尔菲娜吗？”电话里的声音问道。
Delphina had collapsed in the shower.
德尔菲娜在淋浴时倒下了。
She was initially conscious and awake in the hospital, but died from a cardiac incident at 4:30 p.m.
她最初在医院意识清醒，但于下午 4 点 30 分因心脏病去世。
That night, Lydia took the bus to the hospital and confirmed that her friend was dead.
当天晚上，莉迪亚乘坐公交车前往医院，确认她的朋友已经死亡。
She went back to the shelter to ask what happened; the shelter wouldn’t talk to her.
她回到收容所询问发生了什么事；收容所不会和她说话。
Staff and police said Delphina died of natural causes, but Lydia diagrees: “It was an overwhelmed system.”
工作人员和警方称德尔菲娜是自然死亡，但莉迪亚不同意：“这是一个不堪重负的系统。”
“When you seek asylum at the airport, you shouldn’t just be let go with a number.
“当你在机场寻求庇护时，你不应该只凭一个号码就被放走。
Where is the follow-up?
后续在哪里？
Where do these people go?
这些人去哪儿了？
Where is the responsibility to take them to a safe place?” she says.
哪里有责任把他们带到安全的地方？”她说。
“When you seek asylum, it means you have nowhere else to go.
“当你寻求庇护时，这意味着你无处可去。
You’re not a visitor.
你不是访客。
You’re not a tourist.
你不是游客。
You’re someone who needs a lot of help.”
你是一个需要很多帮助的人。”
On the fifth day after Delphina arrived in Canada, Lydia sorted through her bags.
德尔菲娜抵达加拿大的第五天，莉迪亚开始整理行李。
She found a to-do list in a box.
她在一个盒子里发现了一份待办事项清单。
Four passports, one for each of her children.
四本护照，每个孩子一本。
Four dollar signs next to them, the amount she needed to collect for each.
旁边有四个美元符号，上面写着她需要为每个美元收取的金额。
“People come to Canada because they think it can help them,” she says.
“人们来到加拿大是因为他们认为这可以帮助他们，”她说。
“But how much is Canada prepared to receive them?
“但是加拿大准备了多少资金来接收他们呢？
They didn’t receive my friend.”
他们没有接待我的朋友。”
The Immigration Issue was made possible through the generous support of the WES Mariam Assefa Fund.
移民问题的解决得益于 WES Mariam Assefa 基金的慷慨支持。
All stories were produced independently by The Local.
所有故事均由 The Local 独立制作。
Fatima Syed is an award-winning Mississauga-based journalist with The Narwhal.
法蒂玛·赛义德 (Fatima Syed) 是《独角鲸》驻密西沙加的获奖记者。
She has worked for The Walrus, the Toronto Star, The Logic, and National Observer.
她曾为《海象》、《多伦多星报》、《逻辑》和《国家观察家》工作。
She has hosted podcasts with The Big Story and CANADALAND.
她曾主持 The Big Story 和 CANADALAND 的播客。
She is also the vice-president of the Canadian Association of Journalists.
她还是加拿大记者协会的副主席。
She was winner of the 2022 World Press Freedom Canada Award for her coverage of the pandemic in Peel Region for The Local.
她因《The Local》对皮尔地区疫情的报道而荣获 2022 年加拿大世界新闻自由奖。
We're able to produce impactful, award-winning journalism thanks to the generous support of readers.
感谢读者的慷慨支持，我们能够制作出有影响力、屡获殊荣的新闻报道。
By supporting The Local, you're contributing to a new kind of journalism—in-depth, non-profit, from corners of Toronto too often overlooked.
通过支持 The Local，您将在多伦多经常被忽视的角落为一种新型新闻事业做出贡献——深入、非营利。
The last year has seen sharp changes in attitudes and policies around Canadian immigration.
去年，加拿大移民的态度和政策发生了巨大变化。
Nowhere are those changes felt more than in Toronto.
没有哪个地方比多伦多更能感受到这些变化。
Publishing throughout January, we dig into the complicated, sometimes contradictory, ways newcomers change life in Toronto, and how this city affects them in turn.
我们在一月份出版，深入探讨了新移民改变多伦多生活的复杂且有时相互矛盾的方式，以及这座城市又如何影响他们。
The feds say reducing immigration will alleviate housing demand, but with a chronic worker shortage, the construction sector has increasingly relied on immigrant labour to build new homes.
联邦政府表示，减少移民将缓解住房需求，但由于长期工人短缺，建筑行业越来越依赖移民劳动力来建造新房。
From Chinatown to Little Italy, every historic ethnic enclave in Toronto began with a single newcomer setting up shop.
从唐人街到小意大利，多伦多每一个历史悠久的民族飞地都是由一个新来者开店开始的。
Can that process still work in 2025?
这个过程到 2025 年还能有效吗？
In the midst of a labour shortage, nurses who come as caregivers and students remain shut out of their profession, with many working gig economy jobs and contemplating leaving.
在劳动力短缺的情况下，作为护理人员和学生的护士仍然被排除在自己的职业之外，许多人从事零工经济工作并考虑离开。
The last year has seen sharp changes in attitudes and policies around immigration across Canada.
去年，加拿大各地对移民的态度和政策发生了巨大变化。
Nowhere are those changes felt more than in Toronto.
没有哪个地方比多伦多更能感受到这些变化。