Canada pledges $50M for refugees
But door is closed to more entries
OTTAWA — The federal Conservative government is being accused of not doing enough to help the largest number of refugees worldwide since the Second World War.
The government marked World Refugee Day on Friday with a pledge of $50 million to help the United Nations High Commission for Refugees provide support to people displaced by war and disaster.
The new money adds to $13 million Canada gives the UN refugee agency each year.
The total so far in 2014 is less than the $75 million given last year, but largely the same as in 2012, the agency says.
“Canada is committed to ensuring that during such uncertain times, the most vulnerable are protected, and their practical and urgent needs are met,” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said at an Ottawa event sponsored by the UN agency.
The agency’s representative in Canada, Furio De Angelis, welcomed the ongoing financial commitment.
But many had hoped the country would do more.
The UN has been asking Canada and other countries to accept more refugees as the number worldwide has surpassed 50 million for the first time since the end of the Second World War.
That includes helping resettle 130,000 Syrian refugees who have fled the war in their country and are now living in squalid camps in Lebanon and Jordan.
Canada previously promised to accept 1,300 refugees: 200 from UN camps and 1,100 privately sponsored by church groups or other organizations. But Alexander was vague about whether Ottawa would do more.
“We want to do more, but we want to do it on the basis of a solid plan,” the minister told reporters.
“We want to put together a plan that gets maximum value and does the most good for refugees. So we don’t have that plan finalized yet.”
The number of refugees accepted by Canada is largely unchanged since 2001, despite appeals from the UN and refugee groups to do more. Canada took in about 28,000 refugees in 2001, declining to 24,700 in 2010. The government has not published more up-to-date figures.
Liberal Sen. Mobina Jaffer, who at Friday’s event shared her own story of fleeing Uganda as a refugee, accused the government of taking the easy way out.
“It’s always easy to give money to charity, but it’s difficult to adopt a child,” Jaffer said. “And that’s how we are.
“We are easily giving money, because that’s the easier thing to do. But to bring somebody into the midst of us is harder, and that’s where we’re failing.”
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said her group is “concerned about the low numbers of refugees resettled to Canada in recent years.
“Overall it seems that refugee resettlement is a low priority for the government currently.”
The financial contribution announced Friday is dwarfed by global needs. The UN says it needs another $5.3 billion to help in Syria, let alone crises in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, where thousands of people have fled recent fighting.
Canada’s pledge comes out of its aid budget, which has been cut by hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.
This country ranks 11th out of developed countries by dollar amount contributed to the UN commission; it is No. 15 on a per-capita basis and No. 14 when ranked by percentage of gross domestic product.
“In context, these numbers are actually quite disappointing,” said Sharry Aiken, a refugee expert at Queen’s University.