Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome before the committee. It is extremely interesting for us to receive this type of information directly from people on the ground.
As MPs and as citizens, we are all interested in what is happening in Iraq. I would like you to come back to the issue of fast-tracking the refugees application process. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, is present on the ground.
Did you say that our department or some departments of other governments are involved in these matters afterwards? Is there a common selection process of refugees? How are they selected? We have been told that 20,000 applications were made in 2007 but that only 4,500 refugees have really been accepted out of this number. We have also heard information on how they are apportioned between various countries.
Does the UNHCR refer refugees to various countries which are then free to accept or refuse them? If a refugee is not accepted by a country, the whole process has to start all over again. It would be much simpler if each country were to set its own acceptance criteria in consultation with UNHCR in order to make sure that the selected country would accept those refugees referred by the United Nations High Commission.