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NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
THE HONOURABLE MONTE SOLBERG
MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP
AND IMMIGRATION

to the

10^th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the
Study of Forced Migration

and the

International Refugee Rights Conference of the
Canadian Council for Refugees

Toronto, Canada
June 18, 2006

Check against delivery

* * * * *

Introduction

It is a notable honour to address the opening session of this Conference. I thank you for your invitation. It is a privilege to be here.

I want to begin by congratulating the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM). This is the 10^th anniversary of your international conferences. Over the past decade, you have greatly advanced the field of forced-migration studies.

I want to pay tribute as well to the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) for its commitment to the rights of refugees both here in Canada and around the world.

Finally, I want to thank York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies for being our hosts and for its contribution to research and scholarship on refugee issues.

Hello, and welcome everyone, especially those of you who are visiting Canada for the first time.

Your Importance

Canada has a long tradition of responding to refugee crises globally and continues to do so today.

My hometown is a perfect example. Brooks, Alberta, is home to 1,200 former Sudanese refugees, nearly ten per cent of the community’s entire population. They have settled in Brooks to work in our local meat-packing plant — a place where dozens of languages are spoken.

Not long ago, in my community I met a young man who had been a refugee from Liberia. He told me that his father had been murdered by Liberian rebels for the high crime of being a Liberian public servant. Then he took off his shirt and showed me where the rebels had poured molten rubber on his arm. He rolled up his pant leg and showed me where a bullet had passed through his leg. But today, that young man is safe in the greatest country in the world because Canadians know that helping refugees is the just and right thing to do.

While I may have experienced Canada’s tradition of welcoming refugees in personal terms in my own community, standing here is a new experience.

The first message I want to convey to you is this:

• your work is important;
• your research is needed; and
• your expertise is valued.

It’s a sobering experience to make decisions affecting the lives of others. And it’s a bracing experience to make decisions sometimes costing millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.

In those situations, I don’t want to make the decision on the basis of unreliable information. I don’t want to hazard a guess.

I want the best advice I can get — based on the best numbers I can get — based on a rigorous appraisal of the facts. I also want the wider perspective that comes from assessing the experiences of other countries and examining global trends.

That is where you come in: I am accountable to the public for the decisions I make, and I need your input to help me make those decisions.

This afternoon, I’d like to comment on trends we are seeing that are affecting refugees worldwide. I’d also like to share some thoughts on possible responses to these trends.

In what follows, I’m going to mention a number of Canada’s achievements. Please understand that we Canadians recognize and appreciate the major contributions made regarding refugees by other countries. Countries that are represented here in this room.

Current Situation

There are some 8.4 million refugees worldwide and an estimated 20 million internally displaced persons according to the UNHCR.

Canada must do its part to give these people aid and refuge. That is our moral obligation. In fact, Canada’s approach to citizenship and immigration policy is not just about our national balance sheet — it is also rooted in deeply held Canadian values and traditions. After all, at bottom, immigration policy is about people.

However, significant resources are spent on claims made within Canada by individuals who do not require refugee protection. Despite the fact that the backlog has been significantly reduced, too often our in-Canada refugee determination process is complex, slow, costly and inefficient.

I strongly believe our country must ensure we are able to help those who really need protection, while dealing with these realities.

I am committed to working towards a system that is focused where protection needs are greatest, is flexible and proactive, and delivers protection efficiently.

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a number of developments that are affecting refugees.

Since 2000, for example, the number of refugees has steadily fallen to the 8.4 million I’ve just mentioned. This represents the lowest figure in almost a quarter of a century.

This is partly due to the fact that in the past five years there have been fewer refugee-producing crises. Further, several conflicts have come to an end allowing refugees to return. Among the most significant voluntary repatriation movements is that of the four million Afghans assisted to return home since 2002.

As well, inter-state conflict is less common today than internal strife and civil war, resulting in fewer refugee flows but more internal displacement.

Canada has engaged in refugee settlement for over 50 years. It has welcomed more than 800,000 refugees through settlement since World War II.

Partnerships with Civil Society

But it is not just government that has a role in protecting refugees. We have also been exploring innovative approaches to be more effective in helping those in need of protection, such as by our Privately-Sponsored Refugees Program. To our knowledge this program is the only one of its kind in the world.

Through the PSR program, refugees are sponsored by private citizens and groups who actively work to assist newcomers in adjusting to Canadian society. Since 1979, some 190,000 refugees have been sponsored in this way.

We have found that private sponsorship delivers some of the best results because of the sponsoring group’s personal commitment to the person they have sponsored.

The PSR program currently suffers from a growing inventory. I am committed to working with the sponsorship community to find solutions. I know that by working together we can strengthen this unique and distinctly Canadian partnership between the Government and private citizens for the protection of refugees.

Strategic Use of Resettlement and the Multilateral Framework on Resettlement

Another strategy that is within our reach internationally is a more strategic use of resettlement. The strategic use of resettlement is a concept suggesting that resettlement be used as leverage within regions affected by refugee movements. It emphasizes the need to examine the relationship between protection capacity and resettlement.

We know that resettlement can’t ever be the only durable solution for refugees. This is because it can only be the answer for a small number of the global refugee population. As you know Canada is only one of only 12 countries in the world engaged in a meaningful way in refugee resettlement.

But we believe that when nations work together to resettle refugees it will mean better outcomes for refugees, including those situations that involve entire refugee populations.

Group Processing

Canada is itself actively engaged in new and innovative ways of using our own resettlement program more strategically. As such, it has taken a leadership role in the use of group processing as a tool for refugee protection. We have already done this in difficult refugee situations in both Africa and Asia.

The group processing concept represents a fundamental shift in our policy approach to refugee identification and selection. While security issues obviously remain critical, group processing enables Canada to process large numbers of refugees more effectively. It enables the acceptance of members of an identified group without the need for an individual assessment of their refugee story.

Karen Group Processing

To give you a current example — on the eve of World Refugee Day — I am happy to announce that Canada has agreed to resettle a group of 805 Karen refugees from Myanmar who are now in a refugee camp in Thailand.

Less than a year after being approached by the UNHCR, over 500 from this group are scheduled to arrive in Canada in August and September, with the remaining 300 or so to follow late this year and early in 2007.

The U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are also offering to resettle other groups of Karen refugees.

These people have suffered severe persecution. They have faced torture, imprisonment, forced labour, the burning of their villages and forced relocation in their homeland.

For close to a decade now they have been living in a refugee camp in Thailand, a camp that is overcrowded, that lacks decent sanitation and water facilities, and where illness and disease are prevalent.

Our three CIC interviewing officers were not sure what they would find when they went to the remote Mae La Oon Refugee camp last February.

When they arrived at the camp, they found primitive conditions. Many applicants had lost family members to malaria and dysentery. Many were suffering from tuberculosis. For many of the children it was the only home they had ever known.

But to their astonishment, our CIC officials also found that the Karen refugees had themselves established a school system up to Grade 10; a rudimentary hospital; a training centre for disabled refugees; and thriving cottage industries.

Today, at times, I’ve spoken about refugees in somewhat clinical terms, but refugees are not numbers. They are human beings as real as you and me but, unlike most of us they have suffered unimaginable tragedy and suffering.

The Karen refugee resettlement project exemplifies the level of cooperation that exists between the UNHCR and Citizenship and Immigration Canada as well as other participating countries. It also exemplifies the crucial role played by our domestic partners, like service organizations and private sponsoring groups.

The 500 government-assisted refugees arriving in a few months will settle in 10 communities stretching across the country from Vancouver to Charlottetown. The remaining 305 refugees will benefit from the support of the private sponsorship community. Sponsoring groups from smaller towns to large cities have responded enthusiastically to providing support.

We are extremely pleased to work with the settlement service providers, sponsoring groups and individuals in Canada who will be helping the Karen refugees settle and adjust to life in Canada.

Conclusion

I want to leave you with some closing thoughts as you move forward in your deliberations. That is the need for us to combine, to better coordinate and strategically use our resources both nationally and internationally so that we can better help those in real need of protection.

It is the need to move from a loose international system that is fragmented, reactive and sometimes vulnerable to one that is more integrated, proactive and resilient.

We must continue to help those truly in need. That is our moral obligation. In fact, we need to do a better job of it. We know there is simply no magic formula to address all of the issues faced by Canada’s refugee protection system. We do, however, believe that our strategy to address these issues must reflect fairness and compassion for individuals while protecting the integrity of our immigration system and maintaining the support of the Canadian people.

Of course, this raises the question of how this might be most effectively accomplished, and this brings me back to you.

As I said at the beginning, you have a crucial role to play. We look to you for an objective appraisal of the evidence and for the wider perspective you bring to refugee matters. I would be keenly interested in your reaction to the kinds of issues I have raised this afternoon. And I also offer my thanks and my gratitude. Your selfless devotion to the world’s most vulnerable people on earth is an inspiration to me and an example to the world.

Thank you, Merci.