Globe and Mail
16 March 2007
Ottawa cool to Iraqi exodus
UN, U.S. urge action on helping refugees

ESTANISLAO OZIEWICZ

Despite urgent entreaties from Washington and the United Nations refugee agency, the Canadian government is giving no indication it is willing to fling open its doors to refugees fleeing war-torn Iraq.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says the exodus of hundreds of thousands of desperate Iraqis is the largest population movement in the Middle East in 60 years and there is no end in sight "in the face of extreme violence marking today's Iraq."

The United States recently announced that it would resettle about 7,000 Iraqis referred by the UNHCR and would contribute $18-million (U.S.) to the agency's special appeal for Iraq.

This announcement also followed a public appeal by Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for migration and refugees, for Canada to make Iraqi refugees "a priority in their resettlement policy, because this is an area of tremendous need and vulnerability."

But Marina Wilson, a spokesperson for the federal department of Citizenship and Immigration, said she is not aware of any plans to resettle Iraqis who have been driven from their homes and are now overburdening neighbouring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

Ms. Wilson made the statement after questions about the Iraqi refugee crisis were put to Immigration Minister Diane Finley's office, which declined a request for an interview with her.

Ms. Wilson said the department expects to receive Iraqi applications for refugee status solely on a case-by-case basis from some of its Middle East offices.

A spokesman for Ms. Finley said only that the department expects to receive "additional" UNHCR referrals of Iraqi refugees later this year. So far it has received none.

At present, very few Iraqis are able to make it to Canada on their own in order to launch a refugee claim.

Last year, only 177 Iraqi cases were referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board for adjudication.

By contrast, 9,065 Iraqis sought asylum in Sweden in 2006 and that number is expected to more than double to 20,000 this year. Sweden is asking other countries to share the burden.

Canada's reluctance to get involved is unwelcome news to Hani al-Ubeady, 33, who fled Iraq after the 1990 Persian Gulf war and now works as a refugee-resettlement worker in Winnipeg.

"We need to fast-track the process to bring some Iraqis here to Canada," he said. "The victims of this whole war are Iraqi civilians and those civilians have no refuge to escape this violence but to escape Iraq.

"Life for them in Syria and Jordan is unbearable. It is very hard for them, getting [residency] permits, and is a strain financially."

Nanda Na Champassak, of the Ottawa office of the UNHCR, is holding out hope that Canada will respond -- either with money, a resettlement program or both -- before next month's conference in Geneva to address "the humanitarian dimensions of the Iraq situation."