Foreign Affairs Committee on March 9th, 2017

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

No, please give your experience.

[Rand Sukhaita]

I've been living in Turkey for four years. Most of the Syrian refugees in Turkey lived in urban areas. Nobody knows the camp, and no local or international organization can work within the camp. It's totally served by the government. Most of the Syrians have entered Turkey illegally without their formal papers, and they have temporary card protection, which gives them access to medical services and education. But still they face discrimination, for sure, in these facilities, and still there is a language barrier. Until now we in Turkey lived in separate communities because very few Syrians can speak Turkish, and the opposite.

Until now most Syrians work illegally for less than minimum wage and for long hours, more than eight hours per day, and sometimes without any day off, especially the children and youth over 11 years old. Last year the government allowed the Syrians to get a work permit, but still not all Syrians get it. Most of the humanitarian workers like me have the work permit, and it gives me opportunities so I can move easily in Turkey. But most of the others who have this daily work, they don't. To have the work permit, you should pay taxes and they're very high. That's why most of the job providers don't apply for their employees to do so.

The temporary protection cardholders cannot move from one city to another without permission from the government. They can access the services in the city they live in, not in another city. Even in Turkey most of the Syrians have also been moving within the cities seeking job opportunities, and this adds more challenges for them.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. Kent.

Now we're going to move over to Mr. Lefebvre.

Welcome to the committee. We're glad to have you here today, and we'll turn it over to you.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

It's my pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for being here this morning and sharing your story.

I'll continue in the same direction with respect to refugees in neighbouring countries and your experience in Turkey.

You said a lot of people are moving around to find jobs and opportunities. I'd like to know the challenges that poses for women. Can you also please explain the challenges for women who may have lost their husbands, or maybe they have passed away, in finding jobs in their situation, and what that entails for women who are refugees in the neighbouring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan?

[Rand Sukhaita]

My personal view is that it's harder for women to find jobs. I can say, like here, there are two levels of women. There are women who are educated and have the skills to find jobs. There are a lot of organizations working internationally and locally, Turkish and Syrian organizations working in Turkey. They provide some job opportunities, but just for women who are educated and have the skills; they can speak English and work on computers. The other level is of women who lack these skills, and it's very hard for them to find jobs. That's why the percentages of child labour, child soldiers, and rape were very high during the previous two years—because women couldn't find jobs. They sent their children or youth to work in factories, or in the streets, or in some Turkish shops, but with very low incomes.

That's why it's very important to support the Syrian organizations that are working with women. From our experience and also from the experiences of other NGOs working in Lebanon and Turkey, supporting those women, giving them the skills, and accompanying that with income generation in small grants—in Syria we do small grants—allows women after their training to have a very small amount to start their own businesses. Some of them have opened gyms. Some of them have opened patisseries. Some of them have started selling embroidery tools. It's helped them to have even a small income after training for three months on how to do it.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Who provides these resources to these women, these organizations? Can you please expand on that?

[Rand Sukhaita]

How can we provide it?

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Who right now is helping these organizations, from your experience?

[Rand Sukhaita]

For what we are doing, we started our centres inside Syria with support from Development and Peace. After we knew the real needs and what to do next, we wrote a proposal and sent it to a lot of international NGOs—most of them were INGOs because it always gets through to them. The proposal was about how we would like to have this program, we will target these kinds of women, and this is the impact we want to have in the community. Our funding is mainly from councils and from INGOs.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

This is your experience in Turkey, right? You're doing this—

[Rand Sukhaita]

No, even inside Syria. Most of the organizations now that are in Turkey work inside Syria. They even have teams inside Syria, as we do. We have teams inside Syria. We have people who can go and come back. It's harder at this time to go and come back, but yes.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

How many, do you think? What is your estimate of these organizations, like yours, that exist within Syria right now trying to assist?

[Rand Sukhaita]

How many organizations are working in Turkey?

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Like yours, that have that direct ground.... Obviously, you're from the area. You know the area inside out because that's where you're from. You know the population. You know the communities.

[Rand Sukhaita]

Yes, there are a lot of organizations working there, but not a lot of them are taking the middle side—I don't know what that is in English.

[A voice]

Neutral.

[Rand Sukhaita]

Neutral. There are a lot of for-profit companies that are working there, also. They have offices in Turkey, and they also work inside Syria.

I believe—I don't know, but the last time I was reading statistics, about five months ago—there are 600 organizations. As I mentioned, most of them are following some parties, and they have political views. That's not the thing that we need, I think, during this coming period in Syria.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

Madame Laverdière, I turn it over to you.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Sukhaita, thank you for your very interesting presentation.

You said that only Syrians themselves can rebuild their future. I think that's a very important point.

I found another point particularly relevant. You showed that work for women and mothers affected child labour, for example. When mothers receive help with earning an income, fewer young children work.

Do we know approximately how many children are in intensive labour situations?

I have a second question to ask you afterward, so some time must be set aside.

[Rand Sukhaita]

Thank you.

Actually, I did a lot of statistics recently but nothing comes to mind now in terms of an exact number. I can assure you that through a very simple search on the Internet you can find some statistics.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I think you had planned to travel to the United States to present the work being done by your organization. Do you still intend to do so?

[Rand Sukhaita]

Yes, actually I was invited by an organization called IWPR, Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Each year they have Syrian women go to the United States to meet the organizations there and the people who are making decisions.

This year they cancelled it. I was supposed to go and I had my agenda, but they cancelled it at the last moment because of Trump's new decision. They told me that they could help me to get my visa, and they cancelled it. They said they would try to find women who have other nationalities so they could invite them, but after that it was cancelled.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

This situation is really very sad.

In this committee, we almost all believe in the importance of funding grassroots organizations.

In terms of funding, are you currently facing many challenges?

[Rand Sukhaita]

For sure, I have a lot of challenges with this.

First, until now, funding went through different organizations. We have funding from the EU but it goes through Expertise France, and through us. It's not cost-efficient. It is the same with UN agencies. They take a lot of overhead, and that means the money that gets to the people is less.

Second, we don't have long-term projects. For example, we apply for a new program and we have staff. We train them and they start to do well. Then, after six months, the funds end. We cannot keep our good staff, the trained and experienced ones, because they try to find other work. The real impact on the people is not what we do. Until now, we haven't been funded for more than one year. That was the longest one. You need two months of preparation, recruitment, and training, so we keep struggling to build our capacity, to make our administrative charts, and to focus more on our policies, gender policies, and financial policies and procedures. We struggle to have funds so the program won't end. That may be one of our main challenges.