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Fewer refugees resettled in '12

Ottawa blames lower numbers on Syria conflict

By: Carol Sanders

Tuesday, Mar. 12, 2013 at 10:02 AM | Comments: 0

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Enlarge Image

Canada ramped up staffing at its Middle East office in Damascus, before it closed in January 2012, to process Christian refugees from Iran and Iraq, says Tom Denton.

Canada resettled fewer refugees last year despite the government's promise to help more in 2012.

"We had 320 arrivals under government assistance -- well under the target of 519," said Carlos Vialard, co-manager of settlement services for the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council's Welcome Place.

"The government-assisted numbers didn't come in the way we expected."

Canada welcomed 9,624 refugees, far short of the 13,000 target.

In 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney pledged to increase the number of refugees Canada resettled in 2012 by 20 per cent.

But there were 26 per cent fewer refugees resettled in 2012 than in 2011. Kenney blamed the shortfall on the conflict in Syria.

"There is a civil war in Syria which has forced the closing of our Damascus office and that has affected the processing of settled files and we are working on that right now," Kenney told the House of Commons.

Canada ramped up staffing at its Middle East office in Damascus to process Christian refugees from Iran and Iraq, said Tom Denton, the executive director of Hospitality House Refugee Ministry. The government closed the office in Damascus in January 2012 because of the conflict.

If refugees couldn't be processed through Damascus, there were other Canadian offices that could have helped, said the executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.

"It's not as if there's a shortage of refugees out there," said Janet Dench in Montreal.

The Canadian government could have moved resources from Damascus to other posts to help refugees in other regions like Africa, said Dench.

But there were problems in Africa, too, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration said Friday.

"There have been security issues in many refugee camps in Africa, particularly those in Nairobi, Kenya, which have prevented staff from accessing the refugee camps and selecting refugees for resettlement," said Philippe Couvrette. He said they continue to work "within the confines of technical and security limitations to process as many of the applications in the existing inventory as possible, including those of privately sponsored refugees."

Canada is planning to meet its target of just over 14,000 refugees in 2013, he said. A big chunk will come from Turkey, with 5,000 government-assisted refugees coming to Canada over five years, he said.

"Large-scale resettlement efforts such as this will help the government maximize its resources and expedite refugee processing, which will help in meeting the 2013 resettlement targets."

While numbers were down for all of Canada, and Winnipeg received fewer government-assisted refugees, the largest private sponsor of refugees in the city hit a historic high.

Hospitality House welcomed 358 refugees in 2012, said Denton. The record flow has continued into this year. "We passed 90 last night, which is an all-time record for the usually slow January-February period," Denton said Friday. He said staff at Canada's Nairobi office staff "bust their butts" last year to increase the number of privately sponsored refugees who came to Canada, many to Winnipeg.

The conflict and instability that force people to flee their home countries also impact the work of Canadians trying to resettle those refugees, said Denton.

The Kenya election campaign resulted in a major crackdown on refugees, forcing people out of Nairobi where Canada's office is located and into two big camps. That was disastrous for their departure-to-Canada plans, said Denton. Some returned to Somalia, some fled to Ethiopia or Uganda, some stayed in hiding in Nairobi, where they've been victimized by corrupt police and driven across the Somali border.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

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Updated on Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 10:02 AM CDT:
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