Former refugees build home for future ones
Relocated Welcome House to open in a year
They fled political persecution in Myanmar and passed through Welcome House en route to a new life in Canada. Now 12 former Burmese refugees are helping construct the replacement building that will be the first home to those who follow in their footsteps.
“We feel that we’re building our own house,” said Van Lal Nghak, a construction worker who arrived in Vancouver as a refugee with his family in September 2007.
They came from the airport to Welcome House in downtown Vancouver where they stayed for several weeks, taking English classes and learning how to do things like take transit, open a bank account and find a place to live.
Nghak, who left Myanmar because the military government objected to the political bulletins he and his university friends wrote, said being at Welcome House was the first time he’d felt safe and happy in a long time.
Welcome House is moving to Victoria Drive and East 11th and is set to open a year from now. Nghak and his team are involved in the construction of the new $24-million facility.
It will bring all the services needed by newcomers — such as transitional housing, a health clinic, counselling services, English classes and even a banking kiosk — under one roof.
The Burmese team was assembled by Ro Ling, who fled the military dictatorship in the late ’90s. He said he was jailed 10 times in Thailand and three times in Malaysia for being in those countries illegally before finding refuge in Canada in 2006.
All the men are from Myanmar’s impoverished Chin state and are Christians who faced persecution from the ruling Buddhist elite. Human Rights Watch released a report in 2009 documenting serious abuse of the Chin people by the Burmese army, including forced labour, torture, arbitrary arrest, restrictions on movement, expression and religious freedom, extortion and extrajudicial killings.
“When I imagine that one day, like us, people are going to come and stay here from Burma, from Africa, from everywhere in the world, it’s awesome,” Nghak said.
Around the world, there are close to 60 million people displaced by war and conflict, the largest number ever recorded, the UN’s refugee agency said in a report released Thursday. Three countries — Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia — account for half of them. If this were the population of a country, it would be the 24th-largest in the world.
Canada accepted 12,300 refugees for resettlement in 2014, the report said, compared with 73,000 accepted by the U.S. and 11,600 by Australia. Canada’s 12,300 figure is roughly on par with 2013 and represents a 17-per-cent increase over 2004.
However, a shrinking share of those refugees is supported by the federal government, with the increase in numbers driven by refugees sponsored privately by groups such as churches. Government-sponsored refugees made up 70 per cent of resettled refugees in 2004, compared to 48 per cent in 2013.
The Sun requested refugee countries of origin and provinces of destination from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, but was told to file an access to information request.
There are about 6,000 government-sponsored refugees coming to Canada each year, said Chris Friesen, settlement services director with the Immigrant Services Soceity of B.C., which runs Welcome House.
“When you look at that from a total refugee population of almost 60 million, I don’t even consider that a drop in the bucket,” Friesen said.
Welcome House only takes in government-sponsored refugees to B.C., of which there are about 800 to 900 a year. The new facility will provide both initial housing for those fresh off the plane and transitional housing for up to six months.
“Just imagine you’ve been in a camp for a decade ... you come from the airport, you’re placed in one of the corner, three-bedroom units and you’ve got that view,” Freisen said, gesturing at the mountains and the skyline.
The $24-million cost of the facility is being covered by the sale of the current Welcome House building downtown, allocations from the Immigrant Services Society’s own budget, the City of Vancouver, donations from Vancity and private donors and a $1-million combined contribution from the provincial and federal governments, Friesen said.
The fact that former refugees are involved in the construction was a “very cool” discovery, Friesen said.
“Here they are, employed, with homes, families, paying taxes and working as productive members of Canadian society and in this ironic twist are now helping us to build this world-class facility.”