Citizenship and Immigration committee  Normally, before a refugee is resettled, we try to get the family together and then resettle the entire family. If that is not possible and the situation is urgent, then the family members who are refugees somewhere are resettled, and then we try later on to reunite the family, b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The answer is yes, that would be the procedure. However, you might wish to substantiate the allegations, as my colleague said, with more detailed, precise information in order for us to make the investigation also substantive, because the more information you can share with us,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not sure if it's a matter of others being more capable of doing this than us, because if it comes to resettlement of refugees—Yazidi refugees in Turkey or Syrian refugees in Lebanon—we have a whole system in place together with partner organizations, with NGOs. Going back t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a very good question. I have to say I can't give a precise answer. What I know is that the Yazidis in southeast Turkey are hosted in municipal camps and have not been registering with the provincial authorities. Now, is this a matter of their not knowing they have to do it

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have that information as detailed as I have it for what we do in Iraq for the Yazidi IDPs, because some of the support we deliver to refugees in Turkey—or any refugee, be it Iraqi, Afghan, Somali—often goes through implementing partners. In the situation in Turkey, the Tu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If it comes to resettlement, we have a mandate for the refugees who have left their countries of origin and gone into a new host country. If it comes to being IDP, of course, we have this whole mandate to protect in-country and to support the government to protect its own people

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We look at the family composition and if it is a single woman with children. We look at people who are at risk of detention, arrest, or removal. Actually, on religion—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I said, if it comes to the Syrian program, the number of Syrian Yazidi is relatively low. We're talking mostly of Iraqi Yazidi. The program this year was mainly geared towards Syrians, so that is one explanation for why there were so few Syrian Yazidis amongst the Syrians: bas

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are allegations of discriminatory behaviour by UNHCR in Turkey. I can't comment, because it was new to me when it was testified to. I don't say that it's not true—don't get me wrong—but what I say is that if this is being brought to your attention, they should contact us di

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What I can say again is that in the end, how many Yazidis will be brought to Canada in these 120 days is up to the Government of Canada, in consultation with this House. As UNHCR, if we get the numbers, we will do everything we can to refer. I can already tell you that we have b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. They did it in a year, as you know. What I want to say is that if it would be too dangerous for Canada to extract Yazidis out of northern Iraq as IDPs, you still have hundreds of Yazidis that you can resettle as refugees out of Turkey and Lebanon and a lot of countries. You

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Internally displaced people, who are 40 million of the 65 million, are also on our mandate; however, they are not like refugees. For IDPs, you have a division of labour in a country like Iraq between UNHCR and other agencies. We are there to provide protection and shelter

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for this question—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. You have mentioned one of the key problems. Even if we have a number of dossiers of refugees ready for referral, and the country—in this case, Canada—is willing to accept them, the host country still needs to give the exit permit and their permission. If we notice there is a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If this is indeed a problem—and I will check that again—then yes, we should see together how we can reassure the Turkish authorities that Yazidis should get an exit permit, if that is the obstacle, so that they can find safety and security and a new life in Canada. Yes.