Evidence of meeting #22 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 unhcr.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I was my understanding that there was an IRCC directive by the previous two ministers to track ethnicity and religion of refugees. I think the program was called the areas of focus program. Has that ceased, and if it has, can we get some information on what it tracked and what the areas of focus were?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, you're correct that the area of focus was something that was created by the previous Government of Canada. It was to provide additional considerations in processing refugees, and it was really a form of prioritizing certain types of cases that Canada would be more interested in looking at. It was never exclusive. In other words, if people were not members of an area of focus, it did not mean they would not be processed, but it was just really a means of some guidance to the UNHCR in terms of what sorts of cases would be referred.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It is not in play now.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
In the past, while it was play, were the Yazidis ever put on that list of...?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
There was no specific group that was put on the list.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
There were a number of things, but in general, it spoke of women at risk, of LGBTI, of minority groups. It was quite generic in the sorts of elements it raised.
Director General, Refugee Affairs, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I would add that family ties were an important consideration. Those might be the kinds of things that were on that list.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Under that program were you able to track how many Yazidis, particularly women, between say August 2014 and October 2015, came into Canada?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
No. We were never tracking it that closely.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Were there any specific attempts during that time to help them out or to specifically bring them out of Iraq?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Not that I am aware of.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That said, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was keeping a close watch on what was going on, and they did refer cases to us from residents in Turkey, and those did include some Yazidis.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We do not have the numbers.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
But Canada did make a specific effort. It was the UN that identified them and asked us to do it.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
As it does everywhere we operate.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Okay, so that hasn't changed.
To be eligible for resettlement in Canada, a person must meet the UN convention definition of a refugee outside of his or her country and be seriously and personally affected by civil war. Do you think the definition for qualifying for Canada's protection should be changed?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I think overall, the 1951 definition is the one we have incorporated into the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, word for word. That 1951 definition has proven itself to be incredibly resilient and valuable. If it were to be changed, I think it would be an international effort. Whether we would want to do that isn't, I think, up for debate, but it could become more restrictive if it was going to an international debate on what the definition might be.
You're quite right. I think it does not deal with internally displaced people. That might be worth a further discussion, but probably a separate discussion rather than within the UNHCR definition or the refugee definition.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
With respect to the situation in Iraq with the Yazidis, would it be safe to say that the practical effort is not just the fact that they've not been in a different country or moved out of Iraq but that they aren't in a safe place as it is? Is Global Affairs aware of whether the women are in a safe place and just have to be relocated to a UNHCR camp outside of the country? Is that the challenge right now?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Well, if they are outside of the country, it's far more straightforward for us to deal with any applications from Yazidis. Inside northern Iraq, as you can appreciate, it is an extremely volatile environment. We would have to tread very carefully to do anything within Iraq.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
It would be very difficult, currently, if they are in Iraq, to process them, even if we were able to alleviate the processing requirement of being in a third state first.
