Refugees grateful to become Canadians
HALIFAX — Jelele Etefa and her husband, Bona Dhina, sang the Canadian anthem, waved plastic flags and repeated a citizenship oath at a Halifax waterfront museum Monday.
It was the end of a long trek for the Ethiopian refugees.
Dhina said he has heard of the ongoing mid-winter border crossings by Africans seeking refugee status in southern Manitoba, as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes to bring in an immigration ban targeting seven majority Muslim countries.
The 39-year-old father said it saddens him to see the increasing challenges for refugees.
“They are closing a lot of countries. … It is very difficult for them. If they are going back to their original country, it will be dangerous for them. They will be jailed or killed. It’s very bad,” Dhina said.
Dhina gained Canadian citizenship a year ago, and on Monday brought his three-year-old daughter, Simboo, and seven-year-old son, Surraa, to witness their mother’s rite of passage at the Halifax gathering of 33 people from 16 nations who became Canadians.
Canada has seen a steady increase in overall refugee and protected person figures in recent years, climbing from 24,000 in 2014 to last year’s totals of almost 47,000. Total immigration was about 243,000 newcomers last year, according to Statistics Canada figures.
While a poll released Monday by the Angus Reid institute said the federal government has majority approval for its refugee policy, 41 per cent of respondents said the country is taking in too many asylum seekers.
About 47 per cent of respondents said Canada is accepting the correct number of refugees, and 11 per cent of the 1,508 adults surveyed said the country should increase the number of refugees.