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.
2:50 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I gave the example of the Sikhs in Afghanistan where we referred specifically to the challenges they face in their country of origin.
2:50 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
When the UN is recommending to accelerate the asylum applications of Yazidi victims of genocide, are they in fact asking countries to prioritize applications of a group based on the fact that they're being persecuted because of their ethnicity and religion?
2:50 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I'm not sure what the consideration of that committee was in terms of streamlining, because I know there were a number of recommendations that they made.
2:50 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Let me put it a different way. Would you consider Yazidis to be an ethnic and/or a religious minority in the region?
2:50 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Yes.
2:50 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Yes.
Then when it comes to prioritizing refugees, and we had departmental officials in here talking about....You even said yourself that there is unfortunately, to humanity's overall detriment, a lot of people around the world who are displaced people. Canada is a very fortunate nation, and we are in a position to help.
One of our departmental officials said that one of the challenges they might encounter is long backlogs in processing. In this situation, especially when the UN is asking member countries to accelerate the asylum claims of a very persecuted group, one that the UN has said is facing genocide, do you think it is right for countries to prioritize based on that consideration?
2:55 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
If you're saying prioritize due to refugee status determination, then certainly that is something—
2:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Is it right for this country to prioritize applications from Yazidis, given the declaration of genocide from the UN?
2:55 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Are you talking about prioritizing for resettlement?
2:55 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
For resettlement. That's a voluntary act of states, right?
2:55 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The recommendation actually asks for prioritization for refugee status determination. It doesn't actually talk about resettlement.
2:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Okay.
In terms of the recommendation to accelerate the asylum claims of Yazidis, and other recommendations, including mounting rescue operations for Yazidis, in order to implement that recommendation, to accelerate that, would that not require both the UN and member countries to prioritize those groups, to make the resettlement of Yazidis a priority in their processing?
I guess what I'm trying to do is square the circle here.
2:55 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I think I understand, and I'm not trying to be difficult, either.
2:55 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Earlier you said that to date the UN has not altered its operating practices in processing refugees from the Middle East by identifying Yazidis and transferring that information to countries. We're hearing from the Canadian government that they are relying on your criteria to prioritize applications. I'm saying that if that's the case, how are we supposed to help these people? They are facing genocide.
I'm just wondering if there's any hope from the UN that we can get over this bureaucracy and actually try to accelerate these applications. My colleagues here are going back and forth trying to say whether or not religion or ethnicity is an issue in refugees being processed. It is. That's why you've said this in this report.
Therefore, what is the UN doing to help Canada, with a government that's relying solely on you to bring these people to Canada?
2:55 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
First and foremost, the people have to register with us. That's one of the challenges we've had with some of the population. Secondly, we are exploring a number of things. It hasn't remained static; we're always trying to adjust different techniques. The example of how we brought Syrians so quickly to Canada shows how we've been flexible in bringing in people in a large number.
Our concern has just been the potential challenge if you were to specifically say that someone, by virtue of his or her ethnicity and without any other factor, is effectively going to be selected for resettlement and not someone else. That's it.
2:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you. Your time is up.
Mr. Fragiskatos for five minutes, please.
2:55 p.m.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
I wonder if you could comment on the question of dealing properly with vulnerable people as an international legal question and a problem that the international community faces as a whole. To my way of thinking, this is not a problem per se in Canada's immigration and refugee law. More specifically it relates to problems in the international environment, where we see a refugee convention in place since 1951 that defines vulnerable peoples who have been displaced in a very specific way as those who have fled their country of origin. That's the criterion.
However, we have millions of peoples—40-plus million, in fact—who are internally displaced. Also, there is a convention in place on stateless peoples. It goes back to 1960, but there are only 86 signatories.
Excuse me, there are two conventions. The one I'm referring to has 86 signatories. It's not taken nearly as seriously as the 1951 convention.
Would you say it's fair to look at this problem as something that the entire international community has to look at more? How do we deal with displaced peoples in general? We have 65-plus million now. This is a record number. I think the discussion ought to be broader. We ought to talk about this as something that is challenging for the entire international community. Perhaps Canada could take a lead in raising this.
There are stateless minorities, such as the Rohingyas in Myanmar, the Haitians in the Dominican Republic, and the Bedouins in Kuwait who lack citizenship well, and there are the Nubians in Kenya. On and on we can go with examples. There are just people who lack citizenship.
There are also people who have citizenship but who have been displaced. I wonder if the international legal order and the international community is equipped with the mechanisms necessary to deal with this very serious problem.
2:55 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
What you're describing—forced human displacement—is one of the greatest challenges facing the international community. One of the challenges exacerbating all of this has been not just the increased number of refugees but also the shortfall of solutions. Normally, because resettlement is so small, it doesn't get talked about in the same way we talk about things like voluntary repatriation, which is the most common solution for refugees.
The reality, and one of the drivers of this, is that refugees are forced to be refugees for longer and longer periods of time because no solution is being presented to them politically. This is where we really need the political leadership to solve these conflicts.
I would be really worried if we were to open up a discussion on the refugee convention. The refugee convention itself has been responsible for protecting the lives of millions of people, including millions of Canadians who came to Canada as refugees, so I wouldn't want to do it.
There are some important forums coming up in which the international community will be talking about some of these issues. The UN General Assembly on September 19 will have a summit on addressing large movements of refugees and migrants. Then there's the Leaders' Summit on Refugees, which the United States is hosting. I believe Canada is one of the co-hosts. Again, we'll be talking about different ways towards solutions.
But it certainly is one of the great challenges affecting the lives of millions of people.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
There is hope in favour of this. In 1949, as you might know, there was a study published by the UN called “The Study of Statelessness”. That report understood the issue of displacement in a novel way, that those who were displaced could flee their country of origin or could be internally displaced. It only ended up being contested when the committee looking at what the convention would look like, in 1951, decided ultimately on the definition they did. Therefore, there's hope for that.
Also, I take your point on the need for leadership, so perhaps Canada can provide a role in championing the need to rethink issues along these lines within the international realm.
I think the chair wanted a minute.
3 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you.
Just as a point of clarification, in your opening statement, Mr. Casasola, when you listed the six countries that, combined, produced 84% of the IDPs in 2015, you mentioned that there were 800,000 such individuals in Ukraine. I recently spoke with ministerial officials in Ukraine, who listed the actual number of registered individuals at more than 1.5 million. Just for clarification, the discrepancy in the numbers is because those are strictly 2015 numbers, and the previous ones were from 2014 when Russia's—
3 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Correct.