DIVIDED OPINIONS:
Some in B.C. eager to help, while others oppose bringing more people here.
The refugee crisis in Syria has prompted an overwhelming response from people wanting to know what they can do to help, an immigrant and refugee activist said Friday.
Chris Friesen, director of settlement services for Immigrant Services Society of B.C., said dramatic photographs of refugees fleeing Syria has “generated significant public interest.
“People want to take action,” he said. “They want to feel they’re contributing to helping the situation.”
He said ISSBC in Vancouver is getting emails and phone calls from people interested in finding out how they can sponsor refugees and asking if they can volunteer.
He said the response reminds him of 1999 when thousands of refugees were fleeing Kosovo during the war with what remained of the former Yugoslavia. Friesen said in the period between Jan. 1, 2013 and Aug. 31, 2015, B.C. received 72 government-sponsored refugees from Syria. MOSAIC, another immigrant settlement agency, pledged settlement support for up to 1,000 refugees in Metro Vancouver.
The agency said it could provide up to that many refugees with one-on-one settlement support, interpretation and translation service, assistance with housing arrangements and connections to community resources.
Across Canada, municipalities came forward to offer help as well.
In B.C., the mayor of Whistler wants the resort municipality 120 km north of Vancouver to sponsor a refugee family from Syria.
Nancy Wilhelm-Morden said she asked municipal staff Thursday to look into sponsoring a family from the war-torn country. Initial indications are that Whistler can sponsor refugees, she said.
If that turns out to be the case, Wilhelm-Morden said she would call on other municipal governments across the country to do the same to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.
“I’ve been watching the disaster with the refugees in Europe and the Middle East and it just has been heartbreaking,” she said.
“Everybody feels so helpless. What can you do? I said ‘Wait a minute. I’m the mayor of a town. What can I do?’ ”