The quiet heroes of refugee resettlement
Sponsorship agreement holders support arrivals they sponsor for at least a year
They toil behind the scenes, rescuing people in far-away lands from manmade and natural disasters.
It’s not glamorous work and their name is equally mundane: sponsorship agreement holders.
But for many Canadians what they do is only now being recognized as the world focuses on the Syrian refugee crisis.
When the federal government announced it would bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of February, officials also said they would count 10,000 privately sponsored refugees against the total number.
In 2015, 98.9 per cent of privately sponsored refugees have arrived here through sponsorship agreements holders. Typically, these groups are faith-based, ethnocultural or settlement organizations with one thing on common: They agree to provide financial and settlement supports for at least a year to the refugees they sponsor.
Across Canada, there are 97 such groups and they are the most efficient route for sponsorship.
The Star reached 40 of the 45 Ontario-based agreement holders to learn who they are, how they work and why they do it.
“It’s entirely a volunteer effort,” said Dr. Aslam Daud, the volunteer chairman of Humanity First. “Inaction is not an option.”
Sponsorship organizations say the past few years have been particularly difficult because of government intervention, a changed processing system that closed local offices in favour of a centralized Winnipeg office, and new limits on how many people could be sponsored.
“It was like running into a wall,” said Scott McLeod, a priest with the Council of the Sponsorship Agreement Holder Association.
That changed after Sept. 2, when the photograph of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body made headlines around the world. Kurdi’s family was fleeing the war in Syria.
Almost immediately, organizations noticed the drop in wait times Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
“We’ve never seen this processing before. We’re shocked,” said Khwaka Kukubo, refugee adviser with the United Church of Canada.
Typically, the most recent Syrian arrivals took about eight months or less under the private sponsorship program, a change from expected wait times closer to 11⁄ years for ap
2 plications submitted in 2013 and 2014, data culled from sponsorship holders shows.
Families under Canada’s blended visa office referred program, which since 2013 has provided private sponsors with lists of refugees pre-identified by the United Nations Refugee Agency and offers six months of federal income support, tend to arrive in four months or less, the data indicates. In some cases these refugees are already “travel-ready.” And with the focus on the Syrian refugee crisis and fresh promises from Ottawa, sponsorship groups expect wait times to continue to get shorter.
But case workers, volunteers and clergy were reluctant to speak only of Syrians, noting that their work began long before the present crisis and will continue long after interest fades.
“If this is possible, then I hope this continues,” said Sherif Ashamalla, a representative for Anba Abraam’s Coptic Charity. “If Canada is going to increase its resources to alleviate the incredible stress people are under while they are waiting overseas for applications to be processed, then we hope that it can be done for other populations as well.”
Adeena Niazi, executive director of Afghan Women’s Counselling and Integration Community Support Organization, agreed.
“My heart goes out for Syrians because it’s a very difficult situation,” she said.
“But we should not forget there are other refugees who are also suffering the same way. They may not be the large number, they may not be in the media, but there are other refugees also suffering.”