Important Updates
Dear ERA Friends,
With the seismic shift in the civil war in Syria and recent changes to Private Refugee Sponsorship in Canada, we thought we’d give you an update.
The Private Sponsorship Program which ERA is part of, began in the early 70’s with the Indo-China refugees. It has been a model for other countries wanting to mobilize the goodwill of citizens to take personal responsibility for settling designated refugees in need.
As of Nov.27th, the federal government has paused taking any new PSP applications for one year to focus on clearing up the backlog. We know there are 800 applications waiting to be processed at the Canadian Embassy in Lebanon alone. We hope this will be a temporary measure. The good news is that our application was submitted prior to the pause so it will not be affected.
As far as the ousting of Bashar Al Assad is concerned, it’s still early days, so it’s difficult to really assess the impact of the collapse of the 55-year regime that, with the help of Russia and others, terrorized the Syrian people.
The response from the Syrian families who are here has been astonishment, joy, hope and a sense of lessening fear which they still carry, even when living in Canada.
One reason that you saw very few pictures of the sponsored families in our communications and that only their first names are used is the concern that families might be identified online and as a result, family members in Syria become targeted by the Assad regime.
The Diocese of Niagara (Anglican Church) which oversees our sponsorships has assured us that applications will continue to be processed unless the applicant makes a decision to return to Syria.
We spoke, through an interpreter, with Mostafa (the applicant in Lebanon) last week and he does not intend to return to Syria. From their vantage point, the hardship in Lebanon is a better choice than what they see in Syria. The new regime in Syria will take time to stabilize.
Mostafa’s family are Syrian Kurds which is another complicating factor. Mostafa and his wife Rim have spent 10 years in limbo and their daughters have had sporadic schooling and a traumatizing childhood. Time to change that. Mostafa and Rim are grateful beyond words for your steadfast support.
We hope you will continue to support ERA as we draw together our community to respond to the refugee crisis.
Here are a few resources which pertain to the current situation in Syria.
CBC’s The Current: Syria’s uncertain future
Please reach out with any questions to erinrefugeeaction@gmail.com
It takes a village….. Thank you!!
Sincerely,
Bertha, Cathy, Deney and Sue
ERA Steering Committee
erinrefugeeaction.ca 