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
We don't break down this information by ethnic group, so I would not be able to respond. Nobody will be able to respond.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
To be clear, the UN report said, “Set up a clearly understood reporting system for harassment and crimes committed against the Yazidis in the camps”, but you don't track complaints made by this group. Is that correct?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
It's correct because we don't do the breakdown. We don't ask people to identify themselves as belonging to a certain ethnic group or religion. We will look at the complaint and investigate the complaint. The investigation is not done by the staff in Iraq. It's done by a special team that comes from Geneva.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
You can't tell me how many complaints have been made through that process by Yazidis.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
By Yazidis, no, I cannot.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Okay. For the same reason, you also can't tell me how many Yazidis are located in your camp.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Exactly.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Has the Government of Canada asked the UNHCR to prioritize Yazidis or other ethnic groups beyond the special initiative, for example, going into the 2018 tranche of government-sponsored refugees? Are there any plans by the UN to prioritize Yazidis within the 2018 tranche of government-sponsored refugees on your list?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Canada, like other countries, has asked the UNHCR to prioritize cases that are falling within the global resettlement criteria, which have been adopted by all the countries.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
So that would be no. There's been no special direction for additional identification of Yazidis or other persecuted groups from northern Iraq?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
As you know, this is not the way we function in camps of resettlement—
Conservative
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We look really at—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I know. I'm just asking for yes or no. Thank you.
How were the Yazidis who were included in the special project identified by the UNHCR?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
They were identified by the three directorates that I mentioned, because they're the service providers. It's through medical care and psychological attention that those people can be identified as being in need of services that are not available in Kurdistan for the time being and need, as a result, to be resettled to another country.
In addition, NGOs on the ground, which are operating in the communities, and NGOs in Canada, as I mentioned, were also encouraged to provide names for us to go to these people, identify their needs, and look at whether they fit the criteria to be resettled.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
What is the average wait time for a secondary interview to become listed on a UNHCR list to come to Canada, so between the first interview and the second interview, for somebody who's applying—
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Do you mean in the specific instance?
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Let's say using as a baseline one of the camps that the Yazidis would have been located in.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
It's between a couple of weeks and a couple of months.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you.
In July 2016, this committee undertook a study on internally displaced persons, etc. We had evidence from someone named Mr. Mirza Ismail, as follows:
I have the evidence on some of the UN papers with me, and...I am willing to show anybody——
He's suggesting that there was discrimination against Yazidis. He said:
It's the UN papers. At the initial meeting, they give...a certain amount of months or years—
I asked:
How long is that wait?
He said:
For example, now we have some families who are waiting and their next appointment is on July 7, 2022.
I was incredulous, so I asked if he had any evidence of that fact, and he said:
Yes, I have it with me.
I asked:
Would you be willing to table it with the committee?
He did.
How is it possible that members of the Yazidi community are experiencing wait times that long when you're saying that it's between one and two weeks?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We have 1.2 million people who have been identified for resettlement throughout the world and we have been given only 90,000 spaces by countries, so you can imagine why there are so many delays: 90,000 spaces for 1.2 million people who have been identified.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
In this specific instance, Mr. Ismail—and this evidence was presented to our committee over a year ago—said:
The problem is that most of the UN staff, as sister Nadia said...the UN is not helping, because most of the UN staff are Muslims, and they don't like us. Unless we lie to ourselves, they don't like us. They don't treat us equally.
Was this case investigated by the UN?
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Was this case put in complaint form to the UN?
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
When I met your staff, when they came to my office, I did raise this testimony, so—
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
All investigations are confidential. They are done by our oversight team in Geneva, and staff members are not privy to the results, but the person concerned will receive the result of the investigation.