The strength of the private sponsorship program is also its weakness: the ability to choose. This program helps individuals who are chosen, or families who choose refugees, family members or friends. On the other hand, the program serves refugees who do not know anyone in Canada and who are therefore not chosen.
We are talking about refugees, people in distress. We also touched on processing times earlier, which are very long. My community welcomed a refugee family recently and it took more than two and a half years. For other refugees we are sponsoring, we are still waiting.
We have heard from other witnesses that some refugees who are in the camps ultimately leave because life is too hard there. It is endless for those who decide to start the process over again. Sometimes we never see them again.
How can we assess the success of a program, and by what criteria? What aspects of the sponsorship programs should be improved, whether public or private and whether they are for refugees with UNHCR identity papers or not?