20 July 2005
CCR CALLS FOR PERMANENT STATUS
FOR NATIONALS OF
MORATORIA COUNTRIES
Montreal. The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) today released a report, Lives on Hold, exposing the situation of people trapped in limbo in Canada: unable to return to their country because of insecurity, they are also unable to acquire permanent residence in Canada. The CCR calls on the Canadian Government to resolve the problem by granting permanent residence to people from moratoria countries.
Over 4,000 people are potentially affected. The nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe represent the communities most affected, with the greatest concentration in Montreal, although many are also found elsewhere in Canada.
“Nobody should be asked
to put their
life on hold,” said Janet Dench, CCR Executive Director. “Humanity and self-interest
dictate that we should give status sooner rather than later to people
who are
not going to be removed. We have made
this point to the government, but so far we have been told that the
issue is
not high priority.”
In recognition of the situation
of generalized insecurity, Canada has
imposed a moratorium on removals to Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic
Republic
of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
While nationals of these countries are not removed, they are not
necessarily able to achieve permanent status, even if they have been in
Canada
for years.
Living in limbo causes many serious hardships because people cannot reunite with family members, even spouses and children, have limited job prospects, cannot pursue their education, can access only to emergency health care coverage, cannot travel outside Canada, and struggle with profound feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness.
“I have no future and no plans. The two options are either going home and being killed, or staying here and being away from my children.” Zimbabwean quoted in the report.
The CCR is working with
the affected communities to urge the
government to solve the problem and collaborated with the Zimbabwean
Community
in Montreal on this report.
The
report “Lives on Hold: Nationals of Moratoria Countries Living in
Limbo” can be
found on the CCR web site at www.web.ca/~ccr/livesonhold.pdf
Contacts: Nick Summers,
President, (709) 682-9329
Janet Dench,
Executive Director (514) 277-7223 (ext. 2)