Evidence of meeting #117 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was border.
A video is available from Parliament.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Do you mean refugees through resettlement? Yes, between 20,000 and 25,000 refugees will be landing in 2018 as resettled refugees in the U.S.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
How is the U.S. not safe for refugees if the United Nations is asking it to resettle refugees?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I have never commented on whether the U.S. is safe of not. What I have said several times is that it's the prerogative of two or more states, as we see in the European Union, to enter into those agreements to manage in the best way possible their borders and, eventually, irregular entries. What matters is that in both countries, or in all those countries participating in a safe third agreement, people have access to a fair asylum process and that, ultimately, they are not returned to countries where they face torture or death.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Certainly, but we've heard that assertion about the United States in the closing statement here by arguably one of Canada's leading advocates of refugees. Would the United Nations share that opinion?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We encourage states to enter into agreements when they fear on both sides of the border—or many sides of the border when it's several countries—that people are not having fair access to asylum procedures. We also work with all of those governments to improve the situation, which is what we also do here in Canada. For example, we are very much looking forward to the announcement by Minister Goodale of the alternatives to detention as part of the immigration process, and it is part of the discussions we are having bilaterally with something like 135 countries throughout the world to improve the ways that people can claim asylum.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
But just to clarify, the United Nations is asking the United States to resettle 20,000 refugees this year.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Yes—
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
It's going to—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Would the United Nations ask a country to resettle 25,000 refugees if it weren't safe for them to go there?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We are looking at two different categories of people: asylum seekers and refugees. But, indeed, the U.S. has been a reliable partner of the UNHCR on resettlement for years. For years it was, and it still is as of today, the number one place where we can find durable solutions for the most vulnerable refugees.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Excellent.
How many government assisted refugees is the United Nations recommending that Canada resettle this year?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We don't have a number per country, but we have identified 1.4 million refugees out of the 25 million who are in need, as a life-saving intervention, of a durable solution in a country like Canada.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Canada will resettle 7,500 of them, plus an additional 1,000 under the provisions of the federal budget of February, which will target women in need of resettlement. And we have another 1,500 under the BVOR, which is a mixed program of government and private sponsorship support—so 10,000 in total.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Sure.
Does the UNHCR track internationally, by country, or have a benchmark of an adequate amount of funding that should be allocated to a refugee who is being resettled through one of your programs, in terms of language training, housing, and social supports that aid integration?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No, and that would be very difficult to do because each of those programs is very different from one country to the other.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Some provide shelter, or work. It depends, for example, on when the work permit is given. In some European countries, pending your asylum claim being determined, you cannot work. Of course, that means the cost for the state to provide shelter, food, and everything is far higher there than it is in Canada, where people, after three weeks, are given a work permit.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
During your comments—and I apologize because I was outside the room scrumming for half of them—you referred the number of asylum seekers who had been employed. Were you referring to Canadian asylum seekers, people in Canada?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Yes, we have anecdotal information from a number of partner organizations, in Quebec in particular, that indicates that within a reasonable period of time, up to 50% of them have found a job.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
It's within three to six months. It's quite rapid. We know that within one year of arrival, the average income of those asylum seekers is $20,000.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Were they the people entering at the Roxham Road crossing or for just across-the-board asylum seekers?
