Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would like to add one point here. I'm quoting from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. Guterres said that the UN High Commissioner has clear global criteria on the conditions needed for the voluntary return of the refugees and that these criteria are not me

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are other countries taking care of Iraqi refugees. I've been mentioning Sweden because it is just a marvellous country and has been taking the load off Iraqi refugees. They doubled their quota--if there is a quota. I don't know, but they doubled what they are taking. As f

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will respond to that. I think the total number of refugee seekers, as the high commissioner said, is about 110,000, all over the world. Canada is taking only 28,000, while Sweden is taking 36,000, and the United States is taking 49,000. I find the Canadian number disproportio

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. The fact is that half of this number are Iraqis, in 2007. It's 49,000 Iraqis. If we break down the numbers—I do have some numbers here—the first country producing refugees is Iraq, in 2000. The second one is the Russian federation—I don't have the exact number here in hand,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Are you going with the number first or the religion?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would like to thank the committee for inviting us here today to discuss a very important issue in Iraq: refugees. On a personal level, I would like to thank Immigration Canada. Five years ago it did help me, was a tremendous help, when I tried to adopt this child. It did marv