Evidence of meeting #42 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 recording is available from Parliament.
4 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
My apologies. You've identified Yazidis, so are those individuals candidates as government-assisted refugees?
4 p.m.
Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
If I might just add, in our methodologies we refer to resettlement countries. They decide which programs they admit them under. It's traditional that UNHCR-referred cases tend to come under the government-assisted refugee program, but also under the blended visa office-referred program as well.
4 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
If the Canadian government were to come to you and say this is a major initiative they want to embark on, and that within the 120-day window, which is now about three months, could you assist them in identifying Yazidi women and girls who are victims of genocide for the purposes of resettlement, would you be able to do that work? If so, do you have an estimate of the numbers you can produce for the government within that window?
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The day after the adoption of your motion, your government came to us precisely with this. Since then we have been discussing the numbers of the most vulnerable and what we can do.
4 p.m.
NDP
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I cannot say that here, because it's up to the government in the end.
The government has mentioned certain numbers and how many we should refer by the end of this calendar year—we're in December already—because it takes time, as you know better than I, before they arrive in the country. We pace it to have a sizable number submitted by UNHCR to the government within these 120 days.
4 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You have submitted a number to the government for this initiative.
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No, we have been discussing numbers and times—how many in the next month, in the second month. I assume this is now happening, because this was already three weeks ago.
4 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You have numbers and a timeline, and you're in discussion with the government.
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No, but the timelines are there.
4 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
—unless the government authorizes you to share that information with us.
With regard to internally displaced persons in northern Iraq, do you have no data or information on the number of Yazidi women and girls who are victims of genocide in northern Iraq?
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
What I do have are the numbers of Iraqis displaced in various locations: in Dohuk, in Sulaymaniyah, in the camps, and in urban settings.
In principle, if the people are registered.... I can speak on other situations. I have come from Yemen, where we set this up exactly on the IDPs: where they are and what the numbers are of women and girls. It's aggregated. I need to check with my colleague in Iraq to see whether they have this system there also. What we do have, of course, is Yazidi women and girls in northern Iraq.
4 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
But you don't know how many Yazidi women and girls are in those camps—or do you have that information, and you can send it to us?
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I don't have this aggregated information. What I have is the number of IDPs per location in the various subregions of northern Iraq.
4 p.m.
NDP
4 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
They could be any Iraqis from any kind of background, but if you wish, I can try to find this out for you.
4 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
It would be very helpful if you could submit that information for the purposes of this initiative.
4:05 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In northern Iraq particularly, the German government actually worked with the NGOs on the ground to identify them.
4:05 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Yes, I know.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Do you work with any of those NGOs? If so, can you provide the names of those NGOs for us?
4:05 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
What I know is what I have read, of course, in extenso, in regard to Mr. Blume's testimony here. I know that there's been program work, particularly with IOM, which is not an NGO but a UN-affiliated agency, and with Luftbücke Irak, or Air Bridge Iraq. I cannot tell you here, but there have been other local organizations working for this program. I'm sure that we are in touch with them. I can tell you that we work very closely with IOM, of course, and IOM has a key role in this German program.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Can you provide, then, for this committee's information, a list of NGOs that you work with, that UNHCR works with, in northern Iraq? They are the people who can identify where the Yazidi women and girls are located.