Not only Syrians need aid: advocates
Feds' plan praised but expansion urged
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Hospitality House Refugee Ministry executive director Tom Denton says Canada should welcome 35,000 new privately sponsored refugees a year. Purchase Photo Print
Canada should open its doors to Syrians without closing its doors to other refugees, advocates in Winnipeg say.
"Everything focuses on Syria," said Ghezae Hagos of the Eritrean-Canadian Human Rights Group of Manitoba. "That's good, but it shouldn't be at the expense of other refugees."
CP
Chris Young / The Canadian Press files The government expects to re-settle 25,000 Syrian refugees by year�s end.
Last week the federal Immigration Department sent out a notice to sponsorship agreement-holders -- those who oversee and underwrite the private sponsorship of refugees -- saying Syrian refugee applications will still be accepted but others will be put on hold for now.
That's discouraging for Winnipeggers with loved ones who fled Eritrea to neighbouring countries and are desperately waiting for the green light to come to Canada, Hagos said. "They're taking dangerous routes and ending up in the Mediterranean or becoming victims of human traffickers" once they give up on getting to Canada, he said. "Our biggest problem is we cannot stop people now."
Winnipeg's Jewish community is sponsoring members of the persecuted Yazidi religious minority from Iraq, and some worry the Canadian government will forget the Yazidis in its zeal to save refugees from Syria.
"They're fixated only on Syrian nationals," said Bob Freedman, retired executive director of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg. The Yazidis are among the "most vulnerable" refugees hunted by the Islamic State group, with no home to return to, said Freedman, who's involved with their sponsorship. "They're the ones being slaughtered."
So far, they've raised enough money to sponsor seven Yazidi families to come to Winnipeg -- home to Canada's second-largest Yazidi population (about 200). The sponsored families are stuck in refugee camps in Turkey that are segregated to protect them from persecution inside, Freedman said. Outside, fighting between Turkish and Kurdish forces has been reported close to one of their camps.
Canada can and should help more privately sponsored refugees regardless of their nationality, says a man who every year turns away Winnipeggers trying to bring 5,000 loved ones abroad to Canada.
"My suggestion is 35,000 new privately sponsored refugees a year including Syrians" for Canada, said Tom Denton, executive director of the Hospitality House Refugee Ministry.
Denton, who is a member of the Sponsorship Agreement Holders Council of Canada, estimated 100,000 Canadians are waiting to sponsor a friend or a loved one. The expected influx of 25,000 Syrian refugees will create its own "echo effect," he said. Once they're settled and on their feet, they'll want to sponsor friends and loved ones left behind -- just like tens of thousands of other re-settled refugees from other countries, he said. The federal government, in order to be fair, needs to increase Canada's total number of privately sponsored refugees, Denton said.
"There needs to be a real sea change in terms of Canada's approach to immigration," he said. "The immigration policies of Canada have in the past years been designed as a labour-market strategy," said Denton. "What we have to look at is a more humanitarian strategy... We need to take a longer view than simply a short-term, four-year one as we look at the best ways to build a nation."
Denton said the federal government was right to act on the Syrian refugee crisis. "They had to move quickly on that. That doesn't mean they won't in the future turn their attention to other refugees. I hope they do."
He and other members of the Sponsorship Agreement Holders Council expect to meet in February with federal immigration officials about targets for privately sponsoring refugees in Canada.
In its email to sponsorship agreement-holders last week, the Immigration Department said it's committed to "ensuring that our Syrian commitments do not displace or diminish the processing of other privately sponsored refugees."
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 4, 2016
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http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/not-only-syrians-need-aid-advocates-364094521.html
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