Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  ORAM, an organization based in San Francisco, is working with refugees in countries like Turkey and Kenya. They have started to engage in private sponsorships in the U.S. and they've been successful in getting LGBT resettled in the U.S. I think they have their first two cases and

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If I can just add a point, I don't want to leave the impression that Canadian visa officers necessarily approach this in any homophobic way. There is the reality that their knowledge of gay and lesbian communities may be very Canadian-based. Their ability to then cross those cult

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not sure I understood the question.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think you do that by engaging with some of the refugee organizations working with these communities to let them know this is a welcome application. As I said, there are some credible local refugee organizations that are working with these vulnerable communities. Sometimes it's

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm talking about both. I think if there are locally engaged staff who are part of processing refugee applications, there would be concerns about that. Whether they do have prejudices or not, I think that refugees would assume that they do, and that they share the cultural approa

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  You raised the issue of the concern some witnesses have that even approaching an immigration mission may in fact imperil them or at least raise a lot of concerns because of the reception they may get from either locally engaged staff, Canadian visa officers, or even staff at the

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think that the most important action we could take fairly quickly is increasing the number of private sponsorships that can go through Nairobi. Other witnesses told the committee that there was an enormous waiting list. Unless I'm mistaken, we think that about 1,000 sponsorshi

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think it would be good to do a survey of what we've done to date to put pressure on the Ugandan government. I think a more durable solution would be to improve the conditions for LGBT in Uganda, as opposed to trying to get all of them out of the country. That's just not a reali

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not sure that I'd describe the ability to be resettled in another country as easy, but it's certainly easier than Canada. My understanding right now is that the refugee organizations that are working closely with sexual minorities are not considering Canada as any kind of via

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not sure I can design the best way, but I'll give you a few suggestions. It seems to me that one of the real challenges here is that most of the Ugandans who are facing serious persecution and threats to their lives are still in Uganda, so that's challenge number one. These

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. I would like to start by thanking you for inviting me to testify today. I understand that I have about 10 minutes. I'll probably need 15. Since this is the first time I'm testifying before you, I think it's a good idea to tell you a little bit about my professional b