Citizenship and Immigration Committee on July 18th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

That will conclude the first hour of this hearing.

I'll now allow a couple of minutes for the next panellist to appear. I'll suspend for two minutes. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Welcome back.

Appearing in our second panel is Mr. Michael Casasola from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Thank you for appearing before the committee. You have seven minutes for your opening statement, Mr. Casasola.

[Michael Casasola, Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

On behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, I'd like to thank you for inviting me to appear before this committee. UNHCR notes with satisfaction the particular interest of the committee in the protection of vulnerable populations and internally displaced persons or those we refer to as IDPs.

Our intention had been that I would be joined today by the head of UNHCR's Middle East and North Africa protection service, but regretfully, my colleague had a scheduling conflict and is unable to join me at this time. I would suggest that if there are any technical questions relating to specific populations, we may respond to the committee's questions in writing following my appearance today.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established by the UN General Assembly in 1950 to protect and assist refugees and to find solutions for them. At that time, there were one million refugees, mainly from eastern Europe. Today, over 65 years later, UNHCR is confronted with refugee emergencies and displacement on a scale never seen before. According to UNHCR's global trends report, there were 65.3 million refugees forcibly displaced worldwide, an all-time high, including 21.3 million refugees, 40.8 million IDPs—another record level—and 3.2 million asylum-seekers awaiting a decision on their applications, all in 2015.

With respect to IDPs, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says that in 2015 there were 8.6 million who were newly displaced within the borders of their own countries by armed conflict, generalized violence, and human rights violations last year. Six countries combined accounted for 84% of the all new IDPs, five of which are Iraq, Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan.

Mr. Chairman, primary responsibility for internally displaced persons rests with authorities of their respective countries, but the international community and the UN have a responsibility to share that obligation to respect and secure the rights of IDPs, particularly when states are unable or unwilling to do so. UNHCR has revisited its internal procedures and guidelines for our own involvement in IDP situations. When IDP situations arise that are linked or similar to refugee returnee situations, and where there is a need for intervention, we will intervene provided that it is at the request of the UN and in collaboration with other UN agencies and humanitarian partners.

UNHCR's protection assistance program for IDPs has traditionally covered a wide range of situations and activities. In practice, the nature, extent, and duration of our activities on behalf of IDPs varies as a function of the particular circumstances of displacement, including the pattern of displacement, the absorption capacity of the communities to which they have fled, the willingness and ability of authorities there to provide at least minimum protection against attack or abuse, the duration of displacement, and the demographic composition of the group being displaced.

Availability of funds is obviously an important factor that shapes the extent of our involvement with a particular population. I should note that right now we've only received 43% of the funds needed for the Syria operation. Many other operations are at much lower funding levels.

Since armed conflict and human rights abuses are major causes of displacement, UNHCR's activities entail presences in areas affected by serious disturbance or conflict, where physical safety and security are key concerns, recognizing that concerns about physical safety of UN staff can also limit the scope of our activities. UNHCR assistance has also entailed helping national authorities and other actors to extend essential services to IDPs, particularly in rural areas, including delivering non-food relief items, establishing basic health care facilities, and providing shelter.

As I noted at the outset, when UNHCR was created, it was given the mandate by the United Nations General Assembly to provide protection solutions for refugees. So, Canada's willingness to resettle thousands of refugees each year is key to UNHCR being able to fulfill its durable solutions mandate. UNHCR, by virtue of its mandate, promotes and coordinates resettlement among more than 20 countries, and identifies those refugees in need of resettlement based on criteria agreed upon among all resettlement countries to which UNHCR prioritizes refugees with acute protection needs and vulnerabilities.

UNHCR identifies refugees for Canada's government-assisted refugee program and its blended visa officer referred program. Further, UNHCR's role in referring refugees for resettlement is set out in the immigration and refugee protection regulations. Canada deserves particular commendation for the sizeable expansion of its resettlement program over the past year. UNHCR has expressed our deep gratitude to the government and the people of Canada for the opportunity you've given to thousands of Syrian refugees over the past year to rebuild their lives in Canada. UNHCR also thanks Canada for its pledge to continue to resettle refugees from Syria throughout the remainder of 2016, and we look forward to Canada's participation in future international refugee and resettlement-related forums where it may indicate its planning for 2017 and beyond.

As an aside, I should also add UNHCR's continued appreciation for the $150 million Canada has given to UNHCR so far this year—a record—of which $100 million is in support of our Syria operation in the Middle East.

What is important to note is that, if IRCC fulfills the objectives it has presented to Parliament for 2016 admissions, this year will have the largest number of resettlement arrivals since the Immigration Act of 1976, when an official refugee program was first introduced. While this is a cause for celebration, the unfortunate reality is that despite Canada's generous increase, the number of available resettlement places by all resettlement countries does not in any way meet the refugee resettlement needs identified by the UNHCR. Just one month ago the UNHCR released its global projected resettlement needs document, which examines the global refugee population and identifies, among the record number of refugees, who is most in need of resettlement. According to UNHCR's assessment, 1.19 million refugees are in need of resettlement. In contrast, only an estimated 120,000 resettlement spaces are made available to UNHCR by resettlement countries each year, recognizing that resettlement is a voluntary activity of states. In this context, UNHCR is urging countries to continue to expand their resettlement programs, as well as encouraging states to develop new pathways, including humanitarian transfers or visas, private sponsorship, medical evacuation, family reunion, academic scholarships, apprenticeships, and labour schemes.

All of this increased resettlement activity falls on the thirtieth anniversary of the awarding of the Nansen medal to the people of Canada—the only time the medal has been awarded to the people of a country—recognizing their work to assist refugees. These values of openness and generosity, for which Canadians have been recognized, are ones we wish to continue to encourage, particularly for the large number of refugees who remain in need of a solution.

I would like to conclude my statement today by recognizing that greater international co-operation is needed to address the challenges around increasing internal displacement worldwide. The restoration of peace and the protection of human rights are the best ways to provide truly effective protection to the internally displaced. These are ultimately the responsibility of governments. The forms of protection and humanitarian assistance that can be provided by UNHCR to persons within their own countries serve primarily to promote or reinforce national protection, which itself must be provided by the national authorities. International organizations can play a supportive role, but they cannot substitute for governments in the protection of their own people.

Thank you once again for inviting me. I will be happy to try to address any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Casasola.

Mr. Ehsassi, for seven minutes, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I'll be using the first five minutes, and then will be passing on two minutes to Mr. Saroya.

Thank you ever so kindly, Mr. Casasola, for being here with us today.

I understand that you have been with the UNHCR, serving with them in Ottawa since 2002. Is that correct?

[Michael Casasola]

That's correct.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

And prior to that you also had—

[Michael Casasola]

I worked for the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, where I was involved with the private sponsorship refugees program for at least 11 years.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

So you have many years of expertise.

[Michael Casasola]

Yes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

One of the things I have heard you repeat on numerous occasions is that you very much appreciate the fact that Canada, as a general rule, has adopted a very non-discriminatory approach to the resettlement of refugees. Would you kindly elaborate on that.

[Michael Casasola]

When you identify refugees for resettlement, first and foremost you must keep in mind that they're a refugee, that they're outside their country of origin. In their country of asylum, the question then becomes: are they vulnerable and at risk in that new context? Not only are they a refugee, but now are they in danger, whether it's a legal or physical protection need, a survivor of torture, a refugee woman at risk? From that we use these independent criteria to effectively look at the refugee population and identify who needs resettlement. We have seven categories—I alluded to three or four of them already—that we use to identify those needs, but in addition to that we also look at the question of priority. Is it a normal priority, in terms they need to be resettled, or is it urgent or even an emergency? That's what Canada's urgent protection program responds to: those few cases we've identified who are in imminent danger and need resettlement right now.

The point is those are independent criteria that we apply to any refugee regardless of their nationality, their gender, and such. Certainly we do have efforts like the women at risk program, where we're proactively trying to look and respond to the gender-based persecution that refugee women face, but, again, it's an independent sort of category.

One of the realities in those categories that I've referred to is that when we're operating in a country of asylum, we're a guest of these countries that are hosting us, and we have to work in co-operation with them. To be able to do resettlement, we have to then present to them the categories and criteria that we're using, instead of saying that we're going to be pursuing this particular ethnic group or that particular ethnic group, which sometimes can create problems in the country of asylum, and the politics of that.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you for that.

I also want to follow up on a question that Ms. Zahid asked in the first hour. She asked if, from August 2014, when very serious atrocities took place against Yazidis in the Sinjar region, government officials had received any instructions from the previous government, and the answer was no.

I was wondering if I could confirm with you whether, from August 2014 to September 2015, you received any instructions from the Canadian government as to whether Yazidis should be given any preferential treatment.

[Michael Casasola]

I'm pausing to remember if there was anything specific.

As Mr. Orr indicated, certainly we have discourses with the government at many different levels—in the field, in our headquarters in Geneva, and here in Ottawa. I'll be honest, in that many of those discourses are discreet. I think they're even covered by the Vienna Convention in terms of a diplomatic entity.

I don't recall specifically. Certainly Canada has been very concerned, and it was pretty well known that we met on the creation of an office for religious minorities. We talked about issues relating to them. However, I can't recall specifically.

Again, much of our discourse with governments is discreet, in the same way that one embassy might talk to another embassy.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I understand that Sinjar is part of a region considered to be a conflict zone in Iraq. That, of course, obviously poses a number of processing capacity challenges for UNHCR officials. Would you kindly elaborate on the types of challenges that the UNHCR faces in regions such as Sinjar?

[Michael Casasola]

I'm not an expert on the situation in Iraq, but one of the challenges we have is the security of our staff. We've had staff members killed; we've had staff members kidnapped. That's quite serious, of course, not to mention the humanitarian agencies as well. Some of the partner organizations have faced some of the same challenges. We've had to reduce the availability of staff, sometimes moving staff out, declaring locations non-family duty stations. This all impacts the sort of assistance we can do.

In looking at the reality of a country like Iraq, which is hosting Syrian refugees but also has an IDP population, the sorts of things we can do in assisting refugees are different from what we can do with IDPs. For example, the refugee convention allows us, under article 35, to make signatory states responsible to us, to report on their treatment, to be responsible to us, and give us access and such. With IDPs, as I mentioned in my remarks, we first need the direction of the General Assembly to work. Oftentimes, the scope of activities we can undertake is limited in terms of what's possible, given that you're dealing with nationals inside their country of origin.

However, security would be the big concern for us. We have had to evacuate, I believe a number of staff at various points in time from Iraq.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Mr. Sarai, you have one and a half minutes.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Your history in working for humanitarian causes probably gives you some expertise in this, including the fact you work for the UN.

My particular question pertains to Sikh and Hindu minorities in Afghanistan. Their being IDPs who face a lot of risk, especially the women but including the men, with fears of kidnapping, extortion, forced conversion, but very small in number, how has the UN in the past helped communities like them to escape? Their even raising their voice of wanting to leave is a big risk because of the properties they own. For the people who are not in the major cities, their lives become at risk. What has been the delicate path the UN has taken where it has been successful with any community in the past? What is your advice on assisting people like this?

[Michael Casasola]

It's quite difficult if you were to ask UNHCR to help facilitate the movement of people from their country of origin to another country.

The situation of Afghan Sikhs and the challenges they face has certainly been recognized. There is a section in our guidelines regarding refugee status determination relating to Afghans that refers to concerns about persecution. It effectively is more direct, not in terms of inside Afghanistan, but were they to be outside of their country of origin and to seek asylum, we provide guidelines to decision-makers on how basically to understand their asylum claims.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Rempel, for seven minutes.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Casasola, thank you for all of the work you've done to protect refugees. I think you'd find it is a non-partisan issue.

My colleagues opposite are asking questions about any specific directions given by the previous government to protect Yazidis. For your own edification, we had departmental officials here who said that is was the previous government's practice to protect religious and ethnic minorities as a priority for refugee processing. They did confirm that Yazidis, of course, fall into one of those categories. It was interesting, because we also had departmental officials tell us that the government has actually—I think they're going to get back to us to confirm—ended this process. It has also ended the process of excluding Syrian and Iraqi refugees from the cap on the private sponsorship program. That is just as context.

I would like to look at the report. I read your report in detail around the—

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[Michael Casasola]

She doesn't mean the UNHCR report. It's the UN Human Rights Council report.

Thank you.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Sorry. In that particular report there are three recommendations for member states, which include considering “rescue plans targeted at Yazidi captives”, putting in place “a protocol for the care and treatment of Yazidis rescued” from areas that are “seized from ISIS”, and accelerating “the asylum applications of Yazidi victims of genocide”.

In recent weeks, has there been any emerging consensus from the international community on best practices on how to achieve those objectives?

[Michael Casasola]

Not that I'm aware of, but I may not be aware of all the discourse. A lot of that would happen in the Middle East and in Turkey right now where, it is my understanding, the largest percentage of Yazidis who have fled Iraq are located.