Parrainage privé de réfugiés Syriens

In July 2013, the Canadian Government made an announcement that Canada would resettle 1,300 Syrian refugees in 2013-14, and that the majority of these refugees would be privately sponsored.

The breakdown of numbers

200 persons will be resettled under the Government Assisted Program (GAR).

100 persons were to be resettled under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) through Sponsorship Undertakings submitted in 2013.

1,000 persons will be resettled under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) through Sponsorship Undertakings submitted in 2014.

Eligible refugees

Sponsor-referred Syrian nationals located in Jordan or Lebanon

Eligible sponsors

Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) and their Constituent Groups (CGs)

Allocation of the 100 spaces for submissions in 2013

SAHs were asked to submit their expression of interest to the CIC by June 21, 2013. As a result, SAHs expressed commitment for 88 spaces.

Allocation of the 1,000 spaces for submissions in 2014

An Expression of Interest exercise conducted by CIC for the initial 500 Syrian spaces indicated that 26 SAHs would like to receive a total of 675 spaces. Rather than devising a formula to pro-rate the allocation, which would result in everyone receiving somewhat less than they requested, the Council and CIC have agreed that it makes sense to allocate the 675 spaces now, giving all SAHs who requested spaces 100% of what they asked for. Therefore, all 26 SAHs received exact numbers of allocations that they requested. The remaining 325 spaces will be made available in August 2014.

Impact on Global CAP Allocations

The 1,000 spaces for Syrian nationals in Jordan and Lebanon are being allocated over and above the global cap for 2014. Any spaces allocated will not impact individual SAH allocations under the separate 2014 Expressions of Interest/2013 Annual Report exercise.

Sponsoring Syrian refugees who are not in Lebanon or Jordan

SAHs may use their spaces allocated under the global cap to sponsor Syrian refugees who are located in other countries (not in Lebanon or in Jordan).

Groups of Five and Community Sponsors

Groups of Five and Community Sponsors are able to submit applications for cases that meet eligibility requirements as refugees under the Convention Refugees Abroad Class or the Country of Asylum Class. Additionally, the applicants they wish to sponsor have to be recognized as refugees by the UNHCR or the authorities of the host countries.

Processing sponsorship undertakings at the CPO-W

As of early 2014, CPO-W started processing sponsorship applications for the Syrian refugees outside of Syria on a priority basis. There’s no difference between applicants in Lebanon, Jordan, etc. They are all processed within the Syrian Nationals Priority queue. CPO-W is processing applications in date order but if there’s an error then that application will be delayed and may seem out of order.

*Information provided to this point is a summary of the announcements by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada to Sponsorship Agreement Holders.

UNHCR appeal for finding durable solutions for Syrian refugees

On February 21, 2014, the UN Refugee Agency issued an appeal for resettlement or other forms of admission for 100,000 Syrians. The agency called upon states “to make multi-annual commitments towards a goal of providing resettlement and other forms of admission for an additional 100,000 Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016”.

“UNHCR has earlier called upon states to provide solutions for 30,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees through resettlement or other forms of admission by the end of 2014. To date, 20 countries have offered more than 18,800 places towards this goal. UNHCR remains confident that the 30,000 goal will be met by the end of the year through a significant number of submissions to the United States of America.

UNHCR anticipates that in the coming years, there will be increasing numbers of vulnerable Syrian refugees who will be in need of resettlement, relocation, or other forms of humanitarian admission. In light of the growing needs of the Syrian refugee population, the goal of 30,000 in 2014 represents only the first benchmark in securing solutions for this group.

As part of the emergency response, UNHCR is urging states to consider a number of solutions that can provide secure, urgent and effective protection for these people. Such solutions could include resettlement, humanitarian admission, or individual sponsorship.

States could also offer other kinds of solutions: they could develop programmes that enable Syrian relatives to join family members. They could create scholarships for Syrian students in order to prevent a “lost generation” of young people. They could also offer medical evacuation for refugees with serious health conditions that require life-saving treatment.”

UNHCR appealed to the international community “to continue providing longer-term solutions for Syrian refugees who are most urgently in need”.