Advocacy Groups Call for National Plan for Refugee Claimants
On April 4, the
Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) and some of its
member organizations hosted a press conference in Ottawa calling
for a
national plan for asylum seekers. Participating in the
conference were
CCR co-executive director Gauri Sreenivasan and vice president
Jenny
Jeanes; Allan
Reesor McDowell, executive director of Matthew House Ottawa; and
Loly
Rico, founder of FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto. They called on
the
Trudeau government to "create a national plan that addresses the
growing number of refugee claimants and ensures the right to
asylum."
"Refugee claimants have often survived perilous journeys to seek safety here and the vast majority, almost three out of four last year, are found to be refugees needing protection," Gauri Sreenivasan pointed out. "However, there is no system in place to deal with claimants [...]. Instead, we are seeing a false narrative bandied about by political leaders that unfairly labels refugee claimants as a crisis and an approach that is focused either on futile and dangerous attempts to stop refugees from seeking safety here, or costly, short-term emergency responses that serve neither the public, nor refugees. Far too many claimants are ending up homeless or bussed to isolated hotels, lost in a confusing system without supports or legal counsel," Sreenivasan said.
She said that she and her colleagues "know first-hand" that with some key adjustments to the infrastructure already in place, "we can redirect wasteful expenses" and "replicate what we know works, so that those fleeing persecution are treated fairly and can live and contribute to our country in safety." She added, "This requires contributions from federal, provincial, municipal governments and civil society."
The panelists then demarcated the following five key areas that require action:
1. Establish reception centres in cities with large numbers of claimants to orient arrivals and coordinate services, in collaboration with provincial and municipal governments and civil society.
Allan Reesor McDowell recommended that the federal government establish reception centres to provide "emergency shelter, triage, orientation and referral services for newly-arrived refugee claimants in major cities across the country" to help them "get and stay on track with their claims and settlement process." Such a coordination centre, he said, "can also play a critical role in ensuring services are appropriate and complementary, leading to better outcomes ... with significant cost savings for governments."
2. Provide sustained federal funding for short-term and transitional housing for refugee claimants, scaling up the successful experiences of civil society, diaspora and community groups, to complement provincial and municipal efforts.
Reesor McDowell suggested that the "scaling up of existing successful models" would "complement the reception centres."
"Over the last three decades," he explained, " civil society has on its own initiative developed a network of at least 35 organizations across the country that offer short-term and transitional housing for refugee claimants. Initial findings indicate that these programs operate at a fraction of the cost of hotels or homeless shelters." Such programs, he went on to say, "typically provide food, connections to a lawyer, getting help with a work permit and finding a job," along with a "community of support that is critical to well-being and mental health. Residents are also supported in securing longer-term housing, leading to shorter stays in transitional housing and easing pressures on emergency shelters and related services."
3. Make refugee claimants eligible for the support services offered to other newcomers under the Settlement Program run by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Loly Rico noted that support services were offered to Ukrainians in Canada to help them "start integrating into Canadian society." Since the vast majority of refugee claimants become future Canadians, she requested the same services be provided to refugee claimants so that they can "have a very dignified life, beginning when they come to Canada."
4. Ensure that adequate legal aid coverage is available for refugee claimants in all parts of the country supported by multi-year funding.
Jenny Jeanes argued that "effective legal representation is essential for fair and effective refugee determination and for coordination of all of these systems."
"Currently," she informed, "there is a severe shortage of legal aid across the country. Either in provinces where it exists, it is underfunded and many people don't have access to effective legal representation" or in others "it simply does not exist. To be able to ensure that people can promptly and correctly present their refugee claim and have access to... fair refugee determination down the line, it is essential that they have legal representation."
"We are calling on the federal government to ensure funding for legal aid... that is stable, predictable, linked to the number of claims and reflects the actual cost of determining refugee status. In provinces where there is no provincial legal-aid system, there are... models that can be built on."
5. Streamline the initial stage of the claims process and eliminate the backlog in the subsequent determination process with small but significant adjustments.
Jenny Jeanes said that the initial processing of refugee claims was "overly complex" and, if simplified, "would allow people easier access to the claims system and to the paperwork that they need so that they can meet their basic needs."
In response to a question about the cost of such a national plan, Reesor McDowell noted that his organization's estimation of around $35 a day to provide a bed, food and all the supports and/or referrals needed, including lawyers and employment supports, "is a fraction of the cost in comparison to what's being spent in emergency shelters, overflow shelters, hotels and the outcomes are better." "And as I mentioned, there are 35 organizations like ours doing this, so I think focusing on scaling those up, replicating those effective programs and building on that expertise is an excellent next step."
Gauri Sreenivasan added: "The other point is about long-term predictability. So where emergency measures are not only expensive by default, because they are planned suddenly in the kind of a context that you can have this money and it will run out,... they make it impossible for municipalities and civil society partners to plan longer term. ... So the other way that we know that will be cost-effective is if we create predictable funding. We can actually just create the infrastructure that will be able to properly service and absorb those claimants and their needs, taking the pressure off homeless shelters."
Saying that although new programs "seem like they mean new costs," Jenny Jeanes noted that "many of our members [are] seeing claimants across the country who are languishing for months in hotels because of a lack of service, where we on the ground, our membership, are used to dealing, day by day, with things like a misplaced work permit, a glitch with a medical exam, things that can help people get on their feet quickly, move out of hotels, find jobs and get started with their life in the community.
"On the other side," she continued, "we are denying access to basic services to claimants during the year or two, sometimes more, that they're waiting for that final decision," which "means that they're not getting a good start, in terms of their life in Canada, when most of them will go on to become permanent residents and Canadian citizens. We're not giving their children a good start, either, by depriving them of services."
In Loly Rico's opinion, the three levels of government should be sitting together with "civil society, ... because we are the ones at the end welcoming them and providing the services. If we have a good plan, they won't waste the money."
In response to a question about the dramatic rise in refugee claimants (50 per cent) between 2022 and 2023, Sreenivasan responded that these are numbers that the country is able to absorb and can process fairly. Even at their peak last year, she noted, this was "one-sixth the number of temporary workers that we have in the country and we know that the main reason that it can seem overwhelming is because there is no plan." This "creates the feeling that the volume is too high." But we know very well that "we have all of the skills and know-how to receive claimants, house them, help them find their work permits and help them on their way to set up for successful lives in Canada."
Jenny Jeanes again gave the example of "Ukrainians who were welcomed by Canada in very large numbers, where there was very quickly a system put in place, kiosks at the airport, emergency funding on arrival, organizations mandated to help find housing and work permits, with very large numbers of people coming in a very short period of time. So with the proper coordination, it can work, even with a larger number."
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 3 - April 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540039.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca