Refugee Ministry has opportunities to help Afghan refugees

Travel restrictions during the pandemic slowed the work of the refugee ministry down, but co-ordinator Ishita Ghose said in an interview that 12 or 13 people, including the Milan family and Eritreans who had been refugees in Israel, had arrived between July and December 2021.

Unfortunately, the office has been asked by the federal department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to pause submitting new applications while the department reduces a backlog of more than 70,000 applications that built up while the department dealt with staff shortages during the pandemic. Ghose says they have been asked to submit quarantine plans for two families, however, so she hopes things will start moving again.

“The only place where I would say there is a lot of action is with the Afghan program,” Ghose said. Under a program named Operation Afghan Safety (OAS), the department is reserving 3,000 spaces for Afghan citizens in particular categories—human rights defenders, journalists, LGBTI, persecuted religious minorities—who have managed to get out of the country and are eligible for private sponsorship. IRCC has given all the Sponsorship Agreement Holders like the Diocese of Ottawa 10 spaces each in this pool. Ghose says they could use the spaces right away if there are people who would be eligible.

There is no shortage of people who call and write to the office with inquiries about sponsoring their family members, but Ghose says that many of those people may be new to Canada themselves and may not have the financial resources to sponsor their family members, even if they meet the OAS criteria.