At the CCR Spring Consultation (May 26-28, 2011) the working groups recommended to CCR members the following actions on issues of current concern.
Immigration and Settlement
- Raise awareness about double punishment (tools and resources to be made available on Youth Network website – ccrweb.ca/youth)
- Connect with women’s and feminist organizations to encourage them to take action against the proposal for conditional permanent residence. (OCASI volunteers to do this for Ontario.)
Inland protection
- Give higher profile to issues of statelessness (see CCR, Statelessness and Canada: An introduction, http://ccrweb.ca/sites/ccrweb.ca/files/statelessnessprimeren.pdf. Join CCR in calling on Canada to sign on to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons to mark the 60th anniversary of the Refugee Convention).
- Join CCR campaign for speedy family reunification for children (http://ccrweb.ca/en/family-reunification).
- Take action to address the problem of the deportation of non-citizen youth on the basis of criminality by:
- Advocating for youth protection authorities to take responsibility for ensuring non-citizen children and youth under their care have access to Canadian citizenship;
- Doing citizenship campaigns;
- Educating criminal bar about the immigration consequences of criminal sentences for non-citizens;
- Advocating for diversion programs for youth who commit crimes instead of deportation.
Overseas Protection and Sponsorship
- Sign on and promote the following statement on responding to African refugees
Sadly Canada’s processing of refugees is too slow in many parts of the world, but it is slowest of all in Africa.
Processing is particularly slow in the countries of East and Central Africa covered by Canada’s visa office in Nairobi.
The long delays at Nairobi leave vulnerable refugees in dangerous situations for longer than anywhere else in the world.
We call on the Canadian government to do more to respond to African refugees, who are currently being neglected by Canada’s immigration program.
We call on the Canadian government to ensure fair treatment for African refugees and their families by:
- Resettling more refugees, both privately sponsored and government assisted, and significantly speeding up their processing at the Nairobi visa office.
- Significantly speeding up refugee family reunification at the Nairobi visa office.
For background information to encourage organizations to sign the statement, see:
- http://ccrweb.ca/en/nairobi
- Report, Nairobi: Protection delayed, protection denied (available on above webpage)
- Pamphlet, Refugees from Africa: Are we being fair? (available on above webpage)
Organizations wishing to sign the statement should send an email to nairobi@ccrweb.ca and are encouraged to follow up by:
-
- Writing letters to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and to local MPs
- Publicizing the statement (for example, posting it on their website, publishing it in their newsletter, making a press release)
If they prefer, organizations can make their own statement on similar lines (and follow up as above).
All organizations are encouraged to do anything else they can to draw broad public attention to the unjust delays at visa offices abroad, particularly Nairobi.