It seems Canada’s lax border policies toward illegal migrants are taking their toll on the city’s emergency shelter system.

Figures provided to the Toronto Sun from city shelter staff show that 810 refugees accessed the city’s shelter system in January, jumping to 882 up until March 13.

In fact, shelter, support and housing spokesman Pat Anderson says refugee clients are being referred from two non-city funded organizations that offer “temporary accommodation and services” to refugees but “are full.”

“The numbers we are providing are those who identify as refugees on intake,” she says.

Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI Immigrant Services, insists this increase is not from government-sponsored Syrian refugees but “asylum seekers.

“When they come over the border, they’re not sponsored by government or private groups and so they have nowhere to go...some of them have ended up in shelters,” he said this past week. “All government-sponsored (Syrian) refugees are in their own homes, not in city shelters.”

Sun columnist Anthony Furey recently revealed that a crisis is brewing with illegal migrants crossing the border in between official ports of entry and exploiting a loophole in our immigration laws that allows them to file a refugee claim once in Canada.

Anderson says the city has added 400 more shelter beds to meet the increased demand and they continue to look for “more motel beds for refugees.”

Although motel beds operate more cheaply per night, at a $74.81 average per diem, those 400 extra beds are costing taxpayers roughly $900,000 per month.

Asked whether any extra money has been diverted from other shelter programs to accommodate the extra beds, Anderson said: “Not so far.”

SLevy@postmedia.com