The diocese’s Refugee Ministry is busy after a pause caused by the pandemic and a government-level logjam.
Two Afghan families, sponsored by the Community Alliance of Refugee Settlement (CARS) in Perth, a partnering group of the ministry, arrived in Perth in August. Another two families are on track for settlement to Ottawa. They include a prominent Afghan television news anchor who is among the most vulnerable to persecution.
These families are being settled under the special Operation Afghan Safety Program that is making about 3,000 cases available to Sponsorship Agreement Holders of which the Diocese’s Refugee Ministry is one. The program will be open to applications at least until next year.
At the same time, the Blended Visa Office Referral (BVOR) program has become more active. Under the program Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provides lists of candidates for settlement to Sponsorship Agreement Holders, inviting them to participate.
“I hope we’ll be busy from now on,” Ishita Ghose, case manager at the Refugee Ministry, says. The ministry has filed two applications under the BVOR program and expects to do more.
One of the applications is partnered with the Interchurch Refugee Group (IRG), an independent charity supported by five churches, including Epiphany Anglican in Gloucester.
Ghose, who works with Safiyah Rochelle as a team in the ministry, encourages parishes to contact the ministry office if they are interested or want more information. The big advantage for BVOR sponsorship now is that the government is providing up to six months’ worth of cost-sharing funding based on rates of the province’s Resettlement Assistance Program. Sponsors can choose to support a family or a single person from the lists provided by IRCC.
The government recently announced an additional $800,000 to expand resettlement services in eastern Ontario. The Refugee Ministry is a member of the Refugee Network of the Eastern Ontario and Outaouais Region of the United Church of Canada.
The diocese partners with “constituent groups” like CARS and IRG to sponsor refugee families. The groups may be parishes and community groups and may include family members of refugees. They raise funds to support the refugee families financially for their first year and also provide settlement activities.
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