Overseas Protection and Resettlement

1. There is documented evidence of corruption in some overseas offices of the UNHCR and NGO partners who implement UNHCR programs;
2. UNHCR itself has recognized this problem in its Kenya offices, and has taken measures to address the problem, one such measure being the removal of staff accused of corruption;
3. NGOs too have power over refugees and some have been accused of corruption and exploitation of refugees, particularly women and children in West Africa;

There is no consistently applied government policy priorizing refugee processing, the decision being left to individual officers at the posts;

1. The human rights situation in Guatemala is deteriorating;
2. The Québec-Guatemala accompaniment project, an organization that works to protect the basic rights of Guatemalans, is undertaking urgent actions;
3. Guatemala is on the source country list;

1. Iraqi refugees have been confined to Rafha camp in Saudi Arabia for 12 years, awaiting a durable solution;
2. UNHCR has requested Canada to participate in the resettlement of these refugees;
3. Participation in the resettlement effort is essential to the overall resolution of the plight of these refugees, as Saudi Arabia has made a commitment to grant a measure of local integration to those refugees who do not wish to be resettled, if progress is made towards resettlement of the others;
4. Canada has responded that they will consider participating in a responsibility-sharing effort but has been unable to specify a time-line;

1. The government of Canada has made a commitment to expedite the processing of Sierra Leonean refugees overseas after strongly encouraging Sponsorship Agreement Holders across Canada to get involved in the Sierra Leone special initiative;
2. The situation in Sierra Leone is still dangerous, unstable and volatile in spite of the presence of a 17,000 member United Nations peacekeeping force and the return of some Sierra Leonean refugees who are still internally displaced. The recent influx of 10,000 Liberian refugees also adds to the instability in Sierra Leone;

1. The causes of refugee flows are persecution as well as human rights violations, civil war, extreme poverty, unfair and unjust global economic relationships, and related factors;
2. The industrialized countries have expressed commitment to enter a new, meaningful and effective partnership with Africa in the framework of NEPAD;

1. Africa continues to be a source of refugees and international migration as a result of internal conflicts and political instabilities;
2. The Canadian Government has classified a number of African countries as ‘Source Countries' of refugees;
3. Refugees from these countries are not benefiting from such classification due to logistical and bureaucratic challenges;
4. The International Region of CIC has not developed any strategic plan to deal with the protection and resettlement of refugees from African Source Countries;

1. The Government, in the context of private refugee sponsorship, claims to be committed to the principle of additionality;
2. Visa post staffing was drastically cut in the mid 90s;
3. The overseas processing time for refugees is disgracefully long. (Departmental informants tell us that currently, from the time the completed IMM8s are received at the visa post until the interview takes place is 21 months in Nairobi and 36 months in Damascus.)
4. The overseas delays make it increasingly difficult to sustain the interest of sponsors in the private sponsorship program;
5. The Government is committed to move toward annual immigration targets of 1% of the population of Canada;

1. A Vietnamese group of about 2000 refugees screened out by the Comprehensive Plan of Action still lives in Palawan, Philippines in very poor conditions and without any prospect of a durable solution for either repatriation or local integration;
2. This group of refugees has ties to Canada through family and other community links;
3. The Vietnamese Canadian community is offering sponsorship under the Private Sponsorship Program;
4. UNHCR has acknowledged that this group of persons is in need of a durable solution;

1. Since 1985 many Tibetans have been living in India and Nepal without prospects of local integration;
2. Today the deteriorating political situation in India and Nepal has further placed these refugees in jeopardy;