Evidence of meeting #38 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was refugees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON
Right.
I know that during the period of the Vietnamese boat people, Canada established a special program and brought in more than 200,000. Is that the kind of program that you eventually would be looking to Canada to establish? Both private and government sponsorship would be fast-tracked, and those with relatives or families here would of course be fast-tracked. Is this something that you are looking for from us, aside from the financial support?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The orderly departure program was basically something that came out also from the international conference. There was an agreement that all countries involved or that wished to come forward and take the Vietnamese boat people would commit to certain numbers. There was a big intake by most of the resettlement countries. Canada was perhaps, if I recall correctly, the second largest at that time.
That was a very special situation, I think. People who had fled by boat were found on the high seas in very precarious conditions. Many of them who had reached the Southeast Asian countries were living in camps for years and years together.
So that was a concerted international effort that helped to resolve the situation of the Vietnamese boat people. I think we have again, in this context, a situation where we're talking about very large numbers and where, yes, there should be a concerted effort on the part of all the major donor and industrialized countries to help in this situation in view of, as I said, the very poor infrastructure and the charged capacity of the countries in that region.
NDP
Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON
So in the best case scenario, that's the kind of leadership role you would be hoping for from Canada.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
As I said, I don't think there's even one major refugee situation where Canada has not played an important role. And we dialogue, we discuss directly, with Canada. We also deal with Canada within the framework of UNHCR's executive committee, where Canada has put forward a good number of views and suggestions to try to help. I think many of these have been taken forward. Today we are in a situation where there is a need for stepped-up support in view of the fact that we cannot leave so many millions of people without any immediate hope for improving on their lives.
NDP
Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON
The number that Canada is accepting is under 10%—5% or 6% of what's being submitted—whereas at that time certainly Canada took on a much bigger percentage than what we have today. So Canada probably has the capacity to take a higher percentage than 5% or 6%. That's up to us to debate, of course.
But do you expect that next year you are going to submit more than 25,000, that you would be increasing the number of people you'll be submitting?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We'll be submitting this to all the countries that we consider major resettlement countries. It's something like 16 countries.
Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
When we give these estimates, they're done annually. In fact, we're already trying to do our projections for 2009, so it might be a bit early. But our objective for this year is 25,000 referrals, which is in keeping with what we did last year, which was around 21,000. In resettlement terms, those are very large numbers, because globally last year, among all refugees of all nationalities, UNHCR referred 97,000 in total to various countries. So one in four of those we were referring was an Iraqi.
NDP
Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON
So in 2009 you expect it to be probably higher than 25,000. Looking at it, you submitted 21,000 and then 25,000. It will probably go up.
Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We're still....
Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Exactly. I don't want to make any projections. It's not my place.
Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Just to clarify, 25,000 would be referred to 16 different countries that we're working with right now. If other countries wanted to assist, we would certainly welcome that as well.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Following up from that, the total number last year, you said, was 21,000, in the proportions you've indicated amongst the countries. You want to raise that number to 25,000 for 2008. Is that correct?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No, we will be submitting an additional 25,000 this year.
Conservative
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Yes.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
I see. Okay. That's a bit different.
If I look at the 21,000 you referred last year, Canada took about 7% or 8%, and from what I hear from you, you're saying it's doing its share, and perhaps more than its share proportionally. Would that be fair?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No. We have to be realistic in that the numbers of Iraqi refugees abroad in the Middle East are very high, and at the same time, we need to recognize that there are very few large resettlement countries. Canada is one of them. So we are appealing to the countries to try to take more.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
So if last year Canada took, say, 7% or 8% of the 21,000, whatever number that is—900, I think, is what you mentioned—you're suggesting that this year we take about 7% or 8% of the 25,000 additional refugees, which would be about 1,700 to 2,000 extra refugees?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The question of resettlement numbers are always discussed at the annual tripartite consultations in Geneva, where all the settlement countries are present, where the numbers are hashed out and discussed.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
But if we used the same percentages and each country took its proportional share, that would translate to about, according to my calculations, 1,700 to 2,000 of the 25,000 refugees.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I don't think we are trying to nail any numbers on any countries. The whole idea is that we would like to seek more resettlement places because of the—
