Just to clarify—
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.
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.
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I was speaking with our office in Turkey earlier today. We're in constant communication with the Yazidi community inside Turkey.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Just to confirm, then, a majority of Yazidis actually would consider themselves to be Iraqi nationals. Is that correct?
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
That's not my area of expertise, but that's my understanding.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Could you tell us some of the difficulties you may encounter in dealing with religious and ethnic minorities, such as Syrian Christians and Yazidis, when present themselves at UNHCR camps for processing? What are some of the issues you and they may encounter in doing so?
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I'm not sure. I've heard concerns about people articulating, but we always ask for specifics because we want to know. Unfortunately, we haven't received a lot of specifics, and I find it kind of surprising because, for example, on February 14, 2007, we made an appeal for Iraqi resettlement and we went globally. After many years of our strategy having been effectively to provide temporary protection in the region, we said that we would expand resettlement in a massive way. When Mr. Orr referred to the expansion of Canada's resettlement program of Iraqis, that was in part a response to that.
Unfortunately, we do have the information on registration on ethnic minorities, but we won't release it because it's extremely sensitive in the region and we have to work there.
Our vision is much bigger than resettlement. We have to provide assistance in working with the local governments. With that being said—
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Just to follow on your line of thought, is UNHCR doing anything to actually prioritize the identification of Yazidis, in light of the declaration of genocide, in terms of asylum claims? If one of the recommendations is for member countries to accelerate the asylum claims and governments are saying that they're relying on UNHCR to identify refugees, what is UNHCR materially doing to identify Yazidis for the acceleration of their applications being processed?
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
There are two elements.
In fact, forgive me for first finishing that last little piece. To their credit, religious minorities registered much higher percentages with us than the ethnic population. It's estimated they were 1% to 3%. They were more than 10 times that in terms of the registration and the population registering with us, and they were even more than double that in terms of the number we resettled.
We didn't select them because they were a particular ethnic minority or religious belief. It was because they had a legal physical protection need. Because they were persecuted, based on independent criteria they met the refugee definition. Because they were victims of torture, they needed resettlement on that basis.
I mentioned there were seven categories of Iraqis who came to Canada.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Could I just push you to answer in the time I have remaining on the Yazidi-specific question?
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Sorry.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
You've asked member states to accelerate the asylum claims of Yazidis. Is this correct?
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The UN Human Rights Committee asked for that.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
What is the UNHCR doing to identify and accelerate the identification of these people? Countries are saying they are relying solely on the UNHCR to do this. Also, perhaps in our case where the government has cancelled the cap on private sponsorship exemptions for Iraqi nationals.... What is the UNHCR doing to provide names of Yazidis who may need asylum claims to be processed?
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We would be using our independent criteria. We wouldn't be specifically saying, “You're a Yazidi. Come to the front of the line and we will bypass you over...as a survivor of torture.”
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
So, what you're saying is that, if a government is relying solely on UNHCR criteria to identify Yazidi applicants, right now the UNHCR has nothing in place to prioritize Yazidis as part of that selection process.
2:20 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No, we would prioritize the Yazidis who might be survivors of violence and torture, Yazidis who are women at risk, Yazidis who are facing refoulement, and who are in need of legal protection.
The first step is RSD, refugee status determination. I'm thinking of the situation in Turkey. The second is the resettlement and referral.
What they're talking about in the report is the asylum process, ensuring that they have refugee status determination so they get recognized as refugees.
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
What are you doing at the UNHCR to accelerate that or perhaps identify those victims to a greater extent?
2:25 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We have processes in place, particularly in our office in Turkey, to accelerate the process of registration. The normal process is quite lengthy because of the large numbers who have arrived in the last years. But we actually have processes that allow people to come up much faster if we can identify particular vulnerability.
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
How is that information being communicated to the Government of Canada?
2:25 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We have regular discussions with the Government of Canada. I believe the regional processing post for Canada in the Middle East is in Ankara and our office in Ankara.
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Have there been any discussions to date to take that information and actually prioritize the applications of Yazidis who have been identified through your process to come to Canada as refugees?
2:25 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Again, we haven't necessarily identified people specifically because they're Yazidis, we've identified people because of these independent criteria.
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
But in the report you say we should be accelerating—
2:25 p.m.
Officer in Charge in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
That was not our report. It's the Human Rights Committee's report.
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Sorry, the Human Rights Committee report, on which the government has based its decision to declare there was a genocide, says that we should be accelerating the asylum application of Yazidi victims of genocide.
Just to be clear, at this point the UNHCR has not operationalized a prioritization process for the identification of potential asylum claimants of Yazidi genocide. Is that correct?