Canada's government has abruptly suspended its Private Sponsorship of Refugees program, causing confusion and disappointment among community groups and individuals who have been actively involved in resettling refugees.
Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said he was also confused by the program suspension, calling it 'the wrong message at the wrong time.' The Private Sponsorship of Refugees program, which has existed since 1979, allows private groups to sponsor refugees, providing funding and housing, and getting them access to health care, schools and job opportunities during their first year in Canada . The program was given high-profile attention in 2015 when Mr.
Trudeau’s newly elected government pushed Canada to welcome more than 25,000 Syrian refugees. Vani Davidovic, 61, has been heavily involved in efforts to resettle Syrian refugees, working directly with roughly 50 people over the years. She said the federal government’s announcement came without a warning or a grace period. “I have friends who were submitting to sponsor their own family members who had money fundraised, who had forms filled in, and maybe were just waiting to submit the case and now it’s all gone. It’s all gone. They are devastated,” she said. The pause puts the program on hold for all those but sponsorship agreement holders – organizations, often religious or humanitarian, that have an agreement with the federal government allowing them to sponsor refugees. According to an IRCC report published this year, just over half of the 207,060 refugees admitted to Canada between 2016 and 2022 came through private sponsorship. A third of them were Syrian
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