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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

More refugees approved; sponsors needed

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 04/21/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Tom Denton: 'encouraging'

A thousand more refugees could be coming to Canada, if sponsors are willing to welcome them.

The news was delivered on Thursday in Winnipeg when Manitoba refugee sponsors met with Citizenship and Immigration manager John Nychek.

"It's encouraging," said Tom Denton, executive director of Hospitality House, the non-profit, church-run refugee sponsorship agency. After announcing it was closing one door on new refugee applications by private sponsors last year, Citizenship and Immigration is about to open another, he said.

Canada will accept 1,000 refugees referred by its visa offices, if private sponsors step up, he said.

The government is also offering financial support for their first six months, said Denton. It'll be an opportune time for faith groups to sponsor refugees, he said.

"You have to have money behind you to undertake to support a refugee family for a year."

The only catch is the sponsors don't get to choose the refugees they sponsor.

"Visa office-referred" means Canadian visa officers select people approved by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees list.

A spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration said Friday no one was available to comment on the plan until Monday.

There are not a lot of details yet, but the refugees will likely come through three visa offices overseas, likely one in the Middle East and one in Africa, said Denton.

Many of the people Hospitality House helps sponsor are family members chosen by refugees here who've settled successfully and will support them.

"If you're naming a sponsor, it can take a number of years." There will be less of a wait for visa office-referred refugees, he said.

Last year, Ottawa capped the number of new private refugee sponsorships to deal with a backlog of 23,200 cases. That cap of 1,350 refugees meant the United Church of Canada, for example, could only sponsor 18 refugees.

Now, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney will allow 1,000 more privately sponsored refugees referred by visa offices, said Denton.

"We've had an indication for quite a long time that minister Kenney really likes the refugee program, particularly the privately sponsored part," said Denton.

"Back in the days of the previous government, there were typically 2,900 to 3,300 refugees resettled in Canada," said the retired journalist-turned-refugee advocate.

Now they're aiming at 6,500 privately sponsored refugees, 7,000 government-sponsored refugees and 1,000 visa office-referred refugees, he said.

"That's 14,500, which is more refugees than have landed at any time since the Cold War," said Denton.

He's hoping groups will take advantage of the humanitarian opportunity being offered.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 21, 2012 A14

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