First of all, as you correctly observed, honourable Chair, the future of any country is the youth, and the youth of Somalia need to get an opportunity to grow Somalia. The ones in exile, the ones I have spoken to, want to go back to Somalia. The challenge is that the conditions in Somalia require much more work to be done so that they will able to go back and thrive in their country. Because of the displacement and the destruction of the institutions, the Somali institutions need to be strengthened so they can secure the country.
Second, we need investments in Somalia. We need financial investments in the country in order to grow the economy of the country so that the youth can have hope and find opportunities to work and get jobs.
Third, it is particularly the youth in exile who are more threatened because of a lack of resources to develop skills. This is why a country such as Canada....
We have a limited number of opportunities here for young Somalis who come to Canada to train and to be in the WUSC program, as I just stated. If we can increase the slots for that program, we can get many more out of limbo. As we speak now, the great majority of them require more training inside the country, and they also require outside support to train them and equip them so they can go back to Somalia with the necessary skills.
The danger is that if youth become hopeless, they get radicalized, and that radicalization becomes a threat not only to Somalia but to all of us around the world, including here in Canada. To confront that challenge, I think we need to provide the necessary support. We need to equip them with the necessary skills and vocational training in the camps, in the subregion, so that when they go back to Somalia they are nationals who go back with skills. For them to go back to Somalia, all of us around the world need to rally around the priorities of the Somali government so that we improve the conditions inside the country.