Overseas Protection and Resettlement

1. A humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Sri Lanka since early this year;
2. More than 300,000 Tamils displaced in the North and East of Sri Lanka are trapped in a deteriorating humanitarian situation and Tamils in other parts of Sri Lanka are vulnerable to harassment, humiliation and threat of violence;

the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta of Nigeria, in the number of about 1,000 persons, have been living in Kpomasse refugee camp in Benin for a period of approximately 10 years;

1. Equitable access to resettlement and dignified treatment are fundamental to a just refugee resettlement system;
2. Processing times for refugees to Canada from Africa are unacceptably long;
3. The number of visa offices processing permanent residence applications in Africa is shockingly inadequate;
4. CIC does not have the physical office space and resources to process applications;
5. Refugees and their families suffer disproportionately from this situation in spite of the reality that African countries host huge numbers of refugees in need of resettlement;