Canada's response to refugee crises

today a stark contrast to past efforts

By SEAN FINE -September 3, 2015

Sponsorship system has been made a lot more difficult for sponsors and those in
need since 2012 reforms
The Syrian refugee crisis has exposed a wall of bureaucratic hurdles in Canada's
renowned refugee-sponsorship system that did not exist during previous crises, when
the country brought in huge airlifts of desperate people.
Migrants wanting to come to Canada as refugees now face long waits at visa offices
abroad and for applications to be processed here. Refugee certification from another
country or a United Nations agency is required before some kinds of applications can
be reviewed.

In earlier humanitarian crises, Canada went directly to the migrants and accepted
large numbers quickly. That stands in stark contrast to Thursday's response from the
federal immigration department to the death of a boy found on a beach in Turkey. A
group of Canadians had applied to bring in his uncle's family and hoped to sponsor the
boy's family next. But the family had not been certified as refugees by the UN refugee
agency, UNHCR, or a foreign state.
"An application for Mr. Mohammad Kurdi and his family was received by the
department, but was returned as it was incomplete as it did not meet regulatory
requirements for proof of refugee status recognition," the department said in a
statement.
Canada has required such certification since October, 2012 when the Syrian crisis
was developing for "group of five" sponsorships, a reference to the minimum number
of adult Canadians needed to bring over a refugee family. But it is almost impossible to
come by, said Janet Dench, head of the Canadian Council for Refugees, because the
scale of the problem is so vast UN workers cannot assess people quickly.
"It's just pitiful thinking of Canadians trying to put in an application as a group of five for
a Syrian family, because you know right away it's not going to be accepted," Ms.
Dench said.
The boy, Alan Kurdi, and his family may have been caught in a Catch-22. Tima Kurdi
of Port Coquitlam, B.C., who was part of the group trying to sponsor the boy's
relatives, wrote in a letter to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander that the UNHCR
would not issue the documents Canada requires without confirmation that the family
had been accepted, and Canada will not confirm until it receives the UNHCR
documents. "It is impossible to get the family out of Turkey," she wrote.

Mr. Alexander said on Thursday he would meet with officials to find out the facts of the
family's case and receive an update on the migrant crisis.
Among the other bureaucratic hurdles is the fact that the waits at visa offices for
Canadian officials to review applications a review that happens after that of the
UNHCR range from 11 months in Beirut to 19 months in Amman to 45 months in
Ankara, according to Canadian government figures.
And the immigration department's central processing office in Winnipeg which
handled the application for the boy's extended family takes two or three months to
look at applications.
Decades before the current crisis, Canada airlifted 5,000 people from Kosovo in the
late 1990s, 5,000 from Uganda in 1972, and 60,000 Vietnamese in 1979-80. From
January, 2014, to late last month, Canada resettled 2,374 Syrian refugees.
Mike Molloy was the Canadian government official who oversaw the airlifting of the
Vietnamese boat people and removed bureaucratic obstacles. "The motto out there
was not 'do the thing right,' it was 'do the right thing,'" the 71-year-old, who lives in
Ottawa, said in an interview.
The approach was spearheaded at first by Joe Clark's Progressive Conservative
government in 1979.
"The goal was initially to move 50,000 people in 18 months," Mr. Molloy said. That
became 60,000 in two years under Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1980. The
government offered to match all private sponsorships, galvanizing the public. It was
the formal launch of a system that involved communities in guaranteeing the care,
shelter and early costs of refugees. That system has since brought in more than
200,000 refugees.

In the peak month, February, 1980, Canada resettled 6,200 Vietnamese, Mr. Molloy
said. Canada flew 181 charter flights during a two-year period, each carrying
anywhere from 200 people to more than 400.
"When the government said, 'Go,' the civil servants knew we had clear instructions."
Many of the refugees were on remote islands in southeast Asia. Mr. Molloy sent over
teams totalling between 20 to 25 people to process the applications. They worked fast
and in rough conditions no bathroom facilities, rats crawling over them as they slept.
"Typically, you had about 12 minutes per case. You had to figure out who they were,
and make a guess about whether they were capable of landing on their feet." A written
explanation of why an applicant was expected to succeed in Canada and a description
of the family composition constituted the entire visa, he said. "That's it. There was no
intermediary paperwork." Only medical papers and a security clearance were needed
before final acceptance usually no more than eight weeks after the interview.
"When the sun went down, they would light oil lamps and they would continue until
they couldn't keep their eyes open," Mr. Molloy said. A small team at the Anambas
Islands off the coast of Malaysia interviewed families amounting to 1,200 people in
four and a half days, and when they began to pack their bags, they realized thousands
of people had gathered. "The refugees stood up and gave them a standing ovation."
He said another difference from today is that the Canadians tried to keep extended
families together. "If there was an old granny, she's an asset. Brothers and sisters,
bring them along. We know from experience that when refugees arrive, if their family is
intact, they have a better chance of establishing more efficiently."
Mr. Molloy said he had "fantastic" assignments in a career that included being
ambassador to Jordan, but the highlight was the Vietnamese-refugee project. "We
never lose with refugees. Refugees arrive with no place to go but up."
Refugee advocates are calling on the Canadian government to adopt a similar

approach create a class of Syrian refugees that receives priority acceptance, and
send a team to identify and interview them.
"They could bypass the overwhelmed UNHCR process in cases where Canadians
could identify Syrian relatives," said University of Ottawa law professor Peter Showler,
who specializes in refugee law. "There would still have to be a security clearance, but
that could be done by Canada."
Posted by Thavam