Good morning, and thank you very much.
We're going to be making the presentation with all three of us taking part.
I will begin by introducing you to the Canadian Council for Refugees, which is an umbrella organization of approximately 170 organizations across Canada committed to the rights of refugees and immigrants.
Our mandate calls on us to work for the protection of refugees in Canada and around the world and for the settlement in Canada of refugees and immigrants.
In 28 years of existence, the CCR has established itself as the leading advocate for refugees in Canada.
We are pleased to have this opportunity to speak with you about some of our concerns relating to Canadian refugee policies and programs, as you begin your study of refugees issues.
According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants World Refugee Survey 2006, there are 7.89 million refugees who have been warehoused for five years or more, refugees who have no durable solution. It also reports 21 million internally displaced persons. Yet Canada is now offering asylum and a new home to fewer refugees than in the past.
In 2005 the number of refugee claims made in Canada was under 20,000 for the first time since sometime in the mid-1980s. This compares with an average of 34,700 over the previous five years. This low 2005 number was largely the result of the designation of the U.S. as a safe third country, closing the door to most refugees at the U.S.-Canada border. At the same time, in 2005 the numbers resettled were stagnant. In fact, privately sponsored refugees came in under the bottom end of the range.
We have a broad range of concerns relating to refugees, and there's no time here to go into all of them. Other issues one could talk about relate to government-assisted refugees, interdiction measures, settlement issues for refugees, and the impact of negative public opinion and misconceptions about refugees.
We do want to note, without going into detail here, our concern about processing fees that refugees recognized in Canada must pay for permanent residence--that's $550 per adult. These create significant hardships.
We also want to underline the concern over the continuing detention of children, including some who are seeking asylum in Canada. This raises a more general issue that relates to Canada Border Services Agency, and we have questions about how this committee deals with the split between CIC and CBSA and the confusion that entails, including, with respect, parliamentary committee oversight.
Finally, as a general introductory comment, we would like to encourage members of the committee to attend our full consultation in Montreal in November. This would be a great opportunity for you to learn more about all these issues and many more. The theme of our fall consultation is youth, and perhaps some of you might be able to sponsor a refugee youth from your riding to attend the consultation.
I'll pass over to Debra to talk about private sponsorship.