Page 14 - Presbyterian Connection Newspaper

Connection
14
presbyterian
fall 2017
presbyterian.ca/pwsd
Sponsorship Corner
By Rob Shropshire, PWS&D’s Refugee Sponsorship Program Coordinator. Rob works
with Michelle Ball to provide accompaniment and support to congregations and groups involved in refugee sponsorship.
Love strangers as yourself (Leviticus 19:33-34)
More people on the move
The figures are in. While their images have faded from our TV screens and Facebook pages, the number of people in our world who are on the move due to per- secution and conflict continued to increase last year.
On June 20—World Refugee Day—the UN High Commissioner for Refugees announced that 65.6 million people were forcibly dis- placed worldwide at the end of 2016. Of those, 22.5 million had crossed a border looking for safe haven. It is only when someone has crossed a border that they are considered a refugee. The number of refugees worldwide is up by 1.2 million from the year before: a new post–World War II record.
A precarious situation
Peter (not his real name) is a
teenage boy that a Presbyterian congregation was planning to sponsor. Last November, Peter was kidnapped by “people smug- glers” just as his application for sponsorship was being submit- ted. The smugglers took him to ISIS-controlled Libya. After some time, they said they would take him to Italy by boat.
On June 1, it was a great re- lief to hear that Peter had arrived in Italy safely! More than 1,600 migrants died crossing the Medi- terranean between January and early June 2017, down from the same period in 2016, but still a terrible toll. Peter was one of the lucky ones. We are very grate- ful that Peter is alive, so that his sponsorship can proceed and he can rejoin his relatives.
Time leading up to arrival is decreasing
During the push to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada, appli- cation processing times plunged, but only for those cases. The fast- est time from submitting an appli- cation to picking the newcomers up at the airport was nine days in February 2016! Other cases of Syrians would take weeks or months.
Processing times for refugees in other parts of the world, how- ever, were much longer, some- times taking up to six years.
We are pleased to report that processing times around the world are now coming down. Most cases being sponsored are currently arriving within two years of their submission and the Min- ister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship has committed to bringing this down to one year by the end of 2019. We are anxious to see this happen.
Can we do more?
One of our struggles at the refu- gee desk is the impossibility of accommodating Presbyterians’ current interest in sponsoring refugees to Canada. Annual quo- tas allocated by the government restrict the number of refugees that can be sponsored to Canada; in 2017, the PCC allocation is for 77 people.
This was not a problem just a few years ago, when interest in sponsorship had waned. But in 2017, we received requests to sponsor more than twice the number of spots under our quota. People who have suffered violence in their country of asylum, or who
Fatima al Saye, a three-year-old refugee from aleppo, Syria, lives in Jordan. Over ve million people have ed Syria since 2011, seeking safety in Leba-
non, Turkey, Jordan and beyond. Photo credit: Paul JeFFrey, act alliaNce
are among the most vulnerable, or who have lived the longest as refu- gees are prioritized.
In June, General Assembly adopt- ed two recommendations regard- ing refugee sponsorship:
• That congregations and pres- byteries consider committing themselves to an ongoing refu- gee sponsorship ministry... recognizing that refugee spon- sorship requires patience and a sustained commitment due to complex and changing policies governing the application and approval processes.
• That congregations consider contacting their Members of
Parliament and the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, to strongly urge that quotas for refugees be in- creased to respond to the sup- port being offered by qualified sponsoring groups.
The will is there among Presby- terians to assist more refugees to settle in Canada. Doing so will require an increased and ongoing commitment from the Canadian government.
For more information about refugee sponsorship, please visit WeRespond.ca/refugee- sponsorship
Get Moving
for Moms and
Babies with
PWS&D!
On Saturday, September 30, join PWS&D in the Ride for Refuge—a Canada-wide cycling and walking fundraiser—in support of PWS&D’s maternal health projects in Malawi and Afghanistan.
For the second year in a row, PWS&D is participating in Ride for Ref- uge to make a difference for vulnerable women and their newborns liv- ing in remote communities in Malawi and Afghanistan. With the dollars raised by participants across Canada, PWS&D can continue to build the skills of health workers, ensure that facilities have the right medical tools, empower women to take control of their reproductive health and deliver healthy futures for newborns. Funds raised through this initiative will be matched 4:1 through support from the Government of Canada.
There’s still time to move with us! Visit WeRespond.ca/ rideforrefuge for more information.
victoria Ban eld and her son Thomas Hillier from St. andrew’s Presbyterian Church in markham, Ont., about to cycle 25 km in the Ride for Refuge in Toronto
The Presbyterian Church in Canada