Newcomers share stories for World Refugee Day

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This article was published 21/06/2024 (465 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Youth and adults shared their experiences as refugees to commemorate World Refugee Day at Westman Immigrant Services’ multicultural centre on Thursday.

The event, featuring a forced migration simulation and panel discussions about the refugee experience, was held jointly by Westman Immigrant Services (WIP), the Brandon Local Immigration Partnership (BLIP) and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada at 403 13th St., next to St. Matthew’s Anglican Cathedral.

With multicultural panels and a multicultural audience, WIS interpreters were hard at work making sure everyone understood what was being said.

Those giving remarks before the panels included Mayor Jeff Fawcett, Brandon West Progressive Conservative MLA Wayne Balcaen and Julia Krykavska, co-founder of local Ukrainian-Canadian association Tryzub, who talked about the difficulties encountered by the 400 families from Ukraine who have relocated to Brandon as their country continues to fight against a Russian invasion.

“I think events like this are important to recognize all the refugees from all the different countries, all the resources they need,” Krykavska said.

Katrina Casulla, Brandon’s co-ordinator for BLIP, asked the Brandonites in attendance to do what they can to make the community more welcoming to newcomers.

The youth panellists were all local high school students: Zainab Mohammed from Turkiye, Amina Ali from Eritria and siblings Kaltoum Alabeid and Jomaa Alabeid from Syria.

Compared to Eritria, Ali said she liked how the people in Canada are able to speak their mind freely and criticize the government if they choose to do so. Her family came to Canada by way of Kenya and she dreams of becoming an elementary school teacher.

When the panellists were asked what they would do to improve Brandon, Ali said she would like to see more help for those experiencing homelessness.

Kaltoum said her journey from Syria to Canada, by way of Lebanon, was difficult but worth doing.

Jomaa said the adjustment to Lebanon had been easier initially because the people looked similar and spoke the same language. When they moved to Canada in 2020, he said he had to learn a new language but appreciated how helpful the people have been.

The local Muslim community is growing, Kaltoum said, and they need assistance in finding a space for a bigger community centre. She directly appealed to the mayor to assist the Brandon Islamic Centre.

Mohammed said she dreams of becoming a nurse because of the need for nurses back in Turkiye. Even if she can’t return to her country, she said she would still be able to perform a valuable service here in Canada.

Her advice to future newcomers is to not be ashamed or shy of difficulties encountered when learning English. She also recommended they prepare for a Prairie winter.

The youths advised their peers not to let their pasts dictate their futures and for those interacting with newcomers not to prejudge them because you don’t know what they’ve dealt with and what they’re going through.

Rounding out the adult panel were Tayosan Usman Kafel from Somalia, Kalil Mohammed from Afghanistan, Ahimed Al-Saiti from Syria and Vadym Kochenko from Ukraine.

Kafel said her family left Somalia because of war when she was young. Fighting through tears, she said her father did not survive their journey to Canada and they became separated from her younger sister, who she hopes they can eventually reunite with.

She thanked her mother for her love and support in their 15-year wait to come to Canada. One of her favourite things about Brandon, she said, is how quiet it is and how friendly the people are.

Through an interpreter, Al-Salti said his family went from Syria to Lebanon, where they spent eight years before moving to Canada last year. He expressed gratitude for interpreters and WIS staff who have helped him since arriving in Brandon.

Last September, Kochenko said he and his family moved from Ukraine to Brandon due to the ongoing war and their feeling that there were no safe places back home. Since arriving, he has enrolled in classes in Assiniboine College.

“Canada is a place for us to reboot our system,” he said.

Poverty, hunger and war led Mohammed to Canada through Iran and then Turkiye, he said through an interpreter.

Following the adult panel, the crowd was led in saying thank you to each of the panellists in their native languages.

The event kicked off with a forced migration simulation aimed at giving participants an idea of what it is like to be involuntarily moved out of their home or home region.

About 20 participants were split into four groups, with the members in each group taking on roles in a family dynamic: father, mother and children.

Charity Enemuwe from WIS provided a few definitions for key terms that would be referenced in the simulation, as well as outlining the different ways someone could come to Canada from another country either voluntarily or involuntarily.

A refugee is “someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.”

By comparison, an immigrant is someone who takes up residency in a foreign country by choice. An internally displaced person is someone forced to leave their home who doesn’t cross an international border.

United Nations statistics shared by presenters showed that Canada welcomed the third-most refugees in the world last year and the second-most between 2015 to 2021, with the 65,200 Canada took in behind only the 209,600 welcomed by the United States in that time.

By mid-2023, the statistics said, there were 110 million refugees across the world, including 43.3 million children. Those figures, organizers said, are increasing every day. Only 0.3 per cent of those refugees end up getting resettled.

After being shown a video depicting the deterioration of a society into a civil conflict, the simulated refugees were posed their first question: do they stay in their home country given the presented situation or choose to leave?

If they leave, they may lose their home and possessions and may never be able to return. Staying may endanger their lives.

The group the Sun followed chose not to spend time and money to get travel visas and documents, getting a cold reception from an immigration official and forced to wait behind those who paid.

Another group that chose to pay was harangued by the same official for more cash before they could be helped.

Then, the groups went downstairs to a military roadblock, where volunteers dressed as soldiers pointed toy guns at the participants and threatened worse treatment if they stood up to their aggression.

Placed in a detention area, the groups discussed among themselves how to placate the soldiers through various means, such as bribery with their limited resources.

At one point, when the soldiers weren’t looking, group members darted over to an area labelled food storage to steal extra resources.

Volunteers came to the thieves a few minutes later to inform their group that the food was contaminated and they were developing an illness.

After bribing the soldiers with food and money and having personal belongings like jewelry stolen, the group was finally allowed to proceed to a border checkpoint where more hazards popped up.

By the time the groups got through the simulation, they had lost most or all of the resources and some of their members had “died.”

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