Refugee mothers begging for help to bring children to Canada
Posted September 21, 2015 3:26 pm.
Last Updated September 21, 2015 3:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Refugee mothers gathered at Vancouver’s City Hall today to beg the federal government to help them bring their children here.
One Somali mother spoke of coming to Canada when her son was just a month old while another from Syria shared a cell phone video of her young son screaming for his dead father, separated from her for years.
Fourteen year old Huda Mohammed came here with her brother from Iraq last year.
“To come to Canada, we had to leave without my mother as her file was still being processed,” she explains. “My mother has been in Turkey for over a year, waiting to come to Canada. I really miss her.”
Chair of the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance Chris Friesen says Canada needs to put refugee children first in its efforts to increase refugee resettlement processing and approvals.
“The impact of trauma and family separation can have long-term implications for children’s social, emotional and mental well-being. This should happen through expedited extended family reunification for refugees and [those who are] internally displaced who have pre-existing ties to Canada.”
He says the process in place now often separates families for long periods of time. “Imagine the most heart-wrenching decision you could every make as a mother, choosing between two of your children.”
Friesen notes it can be gut wrenching for desperate families. “Do you pass up the opportunity to resettle to Canada, not knowing if you will ever get the opportunity again or leave with three of your children with the hope that your husband and newborn child will join you soon after?”
City of Vancouver Councillor Geoff Meggs agrees family reunification is the quickest way to increase the number of refugees reaching Canada. “This is a quick, practical and effective way to achieve the objectives endorsed unanimously by council.”
BC’s Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear about every young person’s right to grow up with his or her family. “Family reunification must be a priority in settling refugees.”
She adds the advocacy currently available at the federal level is inexcusable and slow.
