Evidence of meeting #82 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 resettlement.
A video is available from Parliament.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
It's not specific to this program that we are discussing today, but for all resettlement programs.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Okay. Are there any additional dollars then beyond the $108 million and the $4 million that you received? No. The $4 million is for the resettlement of last year's—
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
This year.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
It's for this year's numbers, so for next year you don't have a figure just yet.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You won't get that until after budget 2018 I am assuming. Once you do, could you provide us with that information so that we're aware of it?
I'm curious as to how often you get specific requests from other countries with special measures such as the one in which we were talking about in Iraq right now with the Yazidis.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
It's very rare because countries have adopted some global resettlement criteria to guide our work to ensure this unique solution is carried out in a very fair and non-subjective manner according to the needs of the people.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
All right. I'm just going to go back to the budget issue. This year you got $4 million. How much did you get for the Yazidi initiative from the government? Did you get any additional dollars from the government? You got zero dollars from IRCC.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
For the identification and the referral of the cases, no, but it's part of this envelope that we received from IRCC for all our resettlement and relocation programs.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Okay. Was the UNHCR involved with Germany with their Yazidi initiative? Was that one example of where a special measure or special undertaking was taking place with Germany?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Yes.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Okay. Whenever a genocide has been declared is it the experience of the UNHCR to get special requests from countries to participate or to be involved in...?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No. Let me point out here something that all honourable members of the committee know. Whether you are a rape victim as part of a genocide or a rape victim as part of any other conflict, you are a rape victim. If that person needs to be resettled because—I am sorry to be a bit descriptive here—they have a fistula that cannot be treated in eastern DRC, it's not that, because she's not part of a genocide, we will not prioritize this victim to come to Canada or another country to be treated.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Thank you very much. I need to end there.
This goes now to Mr. Whalen.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Beuze.
Does the UNHCR consider the genocide against the Yazidis to be ongoing?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR does not make that kind of qualification. It would be another part of the UN. The Security Council can make that kind of assessment. To some extent, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights can make that kind of assessment, in particular, through the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, but UNHCR does not qualify the types of atrocities that people are subjected to. We look at the needs.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay, great.
I just wanted to help you qualify the fact that your programs are not based on whether or not a genocide is occurring against a group. It's provided based on their refugee status.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
On their refugee status or their displaced status and the nature of the needs that the person has.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
In terms of resettlement you were mentioning that UNHCR maintains statistics on how displaced people are doing when they are resettled into different countries. How have the refugees who have been resettled into Canada over the last two years been doing compared with refugees who are being resettled in other countries? Is Canada doing a good job on intake of refugees?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I would just make a clarification. We do not maintain statistics because we are not involved with the settlement services. This is very much done by civil society, the federal and provincial authorities. But we are aware of a number of studies undertaken by those partners but also by academics, which show that, indeed, the integration of resettled refugees in Canada is exemplary.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
In terms of the particular population that we're focused on, people who have been displaced by Daesh, it seems to be that the priority is to help them stay in situ, close to their communities, and then to return to their communities. What other factors beyond access to medical conditions might give you guys concern that these people do need to be moved to a separate country? Is there specific targeting? Could they be at additional or heightened risk due to other factors that aren't medical?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Children born out of wedlock to women who have been held captive by Daesh are particularly at risk of reprisal from their own families, unfortunately, and from their own communities because of the so-called shame that has been brought upon the family from having a female member of the family raped.
Those would be cases in which we would consider resettlement, so that the person or the family is not under the social pressure from the rest of the community to eliminate those children.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
I'm getting the sense from some of the testimony today that we're starting to reach the end of the demand for people to be relocated to Canada and to Germany for this purpose. Is that in fact the case, or do you see that this is an ongoing, continual demand, and that Canada and Germany will be continually called upon to take a certain small percentage of displaced peoples for this special type of protection?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No, we are very grateful that Canada and Germany have offered this possibility. Let's keep in mind that those situations are constantly evolving. People are being released from captivity. People who were afraid of coming to the service provider with a specific story or specific needs, after a certain period of time may come out and request additional assistance. It's difficult to ascertain at this point in time whether there will be additional needs for a similar program.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Before I hand the time over to Mr. Tabbara, Turkey is doing a lot of work to help support displaced people in the region. Can the people who were looking to resettle to Germany and Canada receive a comparable level of support and protection in camps in the region, such as camps in Turkey?