The event poster

On February 29^th Canada is expected to meet their goal of bringing in 25,000 Syrian refugees. Though Canada has been criticized for the amount of refugees it has taken it, we are often 2^nd/3^rd (right behind the USA, and interchanging with Australia) in resettlement.

On February 25, PCJ partnered with the Mosaic Institutes’ U of Mosaic to hold, Beyond the Headlines: A Panel Discussion on the Refugee Intake Process. This roundtable discussion was really intimate, seating only about 60 people. I liked the fact the panelists were seated at the table with us. I really liked how we had panelists from different aspects of the refugee question: administrative, legal, and personal. The only thing I would add would be an explanation as to why Canada, a self-proclaimed advocate for human rights picked only 25,000 refugees. I understand this in itself is another huge topic and could warrant its own table discussion.

I will break down the two-hour event through speaker. I will briefly introduce each speaker, their points and my opinion at the end.

Michael Casaola, the first speaker of the night, is a Resettlement Officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ottawa. He is involved in refugee settlement policy development.

Michael said that the purpose of the UNHCR is to provide protection and to give solutions (repatriate, go to a 3^rd country). 10 years ago, repatriating refugees was easier than it is now. Currently, only 120,000 people go back to their homes, thus the need for resettlement.

Resettlement is great for those countries not shouldering the brunt of the crisis to step up and ease burden. It’s a tool of protection and a durable solution. The issue is that only less than 1% of refugees are resettled. Of the 1,153,298 people in Turkey that need to be resettled there are only 86,400 visas available. Priority is given to those who are most vulnerable, such as but not limited to those from an ethnic minority, LGBT groups, survivors of torture and children.

Turkey’s Refugee Process (in a nut shell)

1. When granted status
   • The government agrees this person is a refugee and that they need help. Options for them are then offered.
     • Privately sponsored visas
     • Individually submitted visas
2. Registration
   • Finding out about the individual
   • Their reasoning behind wanting protection
     • The individual is treated as an asylum seeker until they are granted refugee status
     • Vulnerable populations (the government actively tries to resettle this group)
3. Refugees remain in their camp until a country has picked up their case and allowed them to begin their journey over. This process can take anywhere from a few days to years.

The second speaker, Deborah Tunis, was named Special Coordinator for Syrian Refugee Resettlement. She works with resettlement agencies, sponsorship agreement holders and corporate donors that wish to provide support to the incoming refugees.

Deborah identified five phases the Syrian refugees coming to Canada have to go through ( some mentioned above).

1. Identification à costing 17-21 million
2. Processing à costing 36-46 million
3. Transportation to Canada àcosting 94-121 million
4. Welcoming to Canada (where they are set up with bank accounts, homes and schools for their children) à costing 325-377 million

In total, including co-coordinate support, Canada is expected to spend 678 million over the next few years.

** The costs might be lower due to airlines donating flights for refugee transportation**

The third speaker of the night was Nancy Henderson, a head associate at the Parkdale Community Legal services. Parkdale is known as the “landing strip” in Toronto. Most incoming immigrants and refugees settle there.

The incoming refugees will be given an allowance of $864 a month for rent. When the average Syrian family consists of 8 people, this makes finding adequate housing difficult. Just to give some context, I pay $966 for my master room in a two bedroom plus den apartment.

Many refugees will be living in poverty. Which leaves them more vulnerable in taking precarious jobs, or being taken advantaged of. The clinic hopes to teach the incoming refugees about issues with immigration, housing and jobs so they are better equipped to protect themselves.

For those refugees who are coming on a PAR visa ( private), they fare a bit better than those coming on a GAR visa ( government). The government visa’s will only be able to provide what is mentioned above. The private sponsored visa’s are able to find better, more livable apartments. In Canada, over 240 communities have rallied together to sponsor 8,000 incoming refugees. Community members support the family for their first year, and help them find jobs through word of mouth or their own connections. Those coming on a privately sponsored visa have an easier time integrating into their community.

The last speaker of the night was Hajir Sharifi, a journalist and human activist from Iran who has had experience being a refugee in Turkey. Hajir brought a very important dimension to the discussion; humanity. When talking about the logistics of bringing in refugee’s we often forget that they are people who have been prosecuted , are suffering from loss and trauma, and are now forced to adapt in a new surrounding in order to survive. Their troubles do not end just because they are in a refugee camp, or a new country, such as Canada.

Hajir mentioned that the interview process for the refugee visa felt like an interrogation. He mentioned that “the officers are looking to catch you in a lie, in order to determine if you deserve the status of refugee or not”. Hajir was lucky that he was granted status only a few days after his final interview. He mentioned that he knew people that have been waiting 12 years for their status to be verified.

When he mentioned this it reminded me of some pictures that went viral about a year ago. Some refugee’s in Europe had taken a picture of their refugee visa applications, which stated their next interview being in the year 2020. For a conflict that began in 2011, it’s outstanding to think that a person won’t be given refugee status till 4 years from now. Some governments, like Canada, to make the application process easier, have accepted groups of people (such as Syrians, Eritreans, and Congolese) as being deserving of the refugee status.

In terms of the camps themselves, the ones Hajir visited in Iraq had deplorable living conditions. There was only 1 toilet for a group of 65-150 people. Often people could not wait, and did their business around the campsite. Due to the immense amount of human feces, it has spread the amount of infectious diseases around the camp.

Women are exposed to sexual abuse and assault in the camps as well. Since there are no legal aids, trauma help, or mental health help, these people are often left to fend for themselves.

When touring the refugee camps, many people told Hajir that they were worried the publicity surrounding their cause would fade from peoples minds, and that they would be forgotten in the camps. The most important thing I took away from this talk was the fact that we need to reshape the way we view the refugee crisis. Its not a “Syrian crisis” or a “Middle East crisis” it’s a world crisis. As mentioned above, repatriation does not seem to be a viable option anymore. It is up to the global community to open their doors, or provide funds to adequately support those stuck in the camps. The burden of the problem should not be solely on the Middle East and European nations. What happened in Syria was a result of global mismanagement through bad policies, the backing of wrong governments, selling arms (whether overtly or under the table), and through not giving an early response.