Thursday, March 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

With 650 Yazidis Now In Canada, Officials Say Target Of 1,200 In Sight

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 07 Nov, 2017 11:39 AM
  • With 650 Yazidis Now In Canada, Officials Say Target Of 1,200 In Sight
OTTAWA — A promise to resettle 1,200 people who escaped torture and persecution at the hands of Islamic militants is within reach by the end of the year, immigration officials said Tuesday.
 
A total of 807 people had arrived in Canada by the end of October and another 1,383 files are in process, officials told the House of Commons immigration committee.
 
Of those already here, 81 per cent are Yazidi, a minority sect from Iraq specifically targeted by Islamic militants over the course of the conflict in Iraq.
 
The House of Commons unanimously passed a motion in 2016 calling the persecution of Yazidis a genocide and committing to provide asylum to Yazidi women and girls. 
 
A subsequent commitment to bringing in 1,200 people by the end of 2017 was made last February.
 
Islamic State militants have taken a systematic approach to trying to eradicate the Yazidi population since the outbreak of conflict in Iraq in 2014.
 
Some 200,000 Yazidis were displaced in the initial clashes between militants, Iraqi government forces and the Kurdish militia. Yazidi women, girls and boys were routinely sold into slavery, while older men were forced to convert or be killed.
 
"Given the extensive trauma these individuals have survived, including torture, sexual violence, death of their family members in front of them, there are a tremendous amount of psychosocial supports that need to be put in place," Dawn Edlund, an official with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, told the committee.
 
The newcomers have largely been settled in four cities — Winnipeg, Calgary, Toronto and London, Ont., — because there were already pockets of Yazidis there to help provide some of that support, Edlund said.
 
Still, finding translators who can speak the Yazidi's primary language of Kurmanji has been among the issues newcomers have already faced.
 
 
The resettlement program has also been complicated by a number of other factors.
 
Refugees are not generally tracked by religion or ethnicity and figuring out which among those seeking resettlement were Yazidi required the population to, in part, self-identify. The UN and other partners agencies also sought to find candidates.
 
Some Yazidis have argued the UN discriminates against them, because their staff in the region are Muslim, aren't interested in helping, and delay processing their forms, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel told the committee Tuesday.
 
Meanwhile, only a fraction of Yazidis live in the refugee camps that are the traditional source of UN resettlement efforts. For those displaced within Iraq, resettlement has required the consent of local government.

MORE National ARTICLES

Experts See Some Relief For Vancouver's Tight Housing Market By Late 2018

Experts See Some Relief For Vancouver's Tight Housing Market By Late 2018
VANCOUVER — A real estate association watching Metro Vancouver's tight and costly housing market predicts conditions should begin to ease by the third quarter of 2018.

Experts See Some Relief For Vancouver's Tight Housing Market By Late 2018

Vancouver Warns Homeowners To Fill In Forms On Empty Homes Tax Or Risk Fine

Vancouver Warns Homeowners To Fill In Forms On Empty Homes Tax Or Risk Fine
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is warning homeowners if they fail to declare their property status by Feb. 2, they will face the city's empty homes tax plus a $250 fine.

Vancouver Warns Homeowners To Fill In Forms On Empty Homes Tax Or Risk Fine

Jagmeet Singh Sets Sights On Opioids, Pushes Trudeau To Legalize All Drugs To Tackle Crisis

Jagmeet Singh Sets Sights On Opioids, Pushes Trudeau To Legalize All Drugs To Tackle Crisis
OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to consider decriminalizing all illegal drugs in an effort to combat Canada's escalating opioid crisis..

Jagmeet Singh Sets Sights On Opioids, Pushes Trudeau To Legalize All Drugs To Tackle Crisis

Abbotsford Police Officer Killed Identified As John Davidson, A 24 Year Veteran

Abbotsford Police Officer Killed Identified As John Davidson, A 24 Year Veteran
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — A British Columbia police officer who died in the line of duty has been identified as a constable with 24 years of experience who was also active in his community.

Abbotsford Police Officer Killed Identified As John Davidson, A 24 Year Veteran

At Least Two Police Officers Injured In Abbotsford, B.C., Suspect In Custody

At Least Two Police Officers Injured In Abbotsford, B.C., Suspect In Custody
The Incident Occurred Near Mount Lehman Road And Fraser Highway Shortly Before Noon

At Least Two Police Officers Injured In Abbotsford, B.C., Suspect In Custody

Teens Who Drink, Smoke Weed Are Less Likely To Study, Score Jobs Or Get Married

A study found that chronic marijuana use in adolescence was negatively associated with achieving important developmental milestones in young adulthood.

Teens Who Drink, Smoke Weed Are Less Likely To Study, Score Jobs Or Get Married

PrevNext