European refugee and migrant crisis becomes an election issue in Canada

Europe’s crisis in dealing with the onslaught of refugees and migrants is straining its resources. Thousands of people are stranded at a train station in Budapest, Hungary today. Many have paid hundreds of Euros for train tickets they cannot use. Germany is attempting to convene an emergency summit to share the response to the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War.

Syrian refugees wait to get to sponsors in Toronto

Meanwhile, in Toronto, Ratna Omidvar, executive director of Ryerson University’s Global Diversity Exchange and the Chair of Toronto’s Lifeline Syria, says sponsor groups are waiting to welcome Syrian refugees. The processing of applications in refugee camps is taking a lot of time. Omidvar says ‘these are very unusual times… and in unusual times you need an unusual response’.

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Lifeline Syria is a local initiative to bring 1000 Syrian refugees to Toronto. Omidvar says she has been “blown away” by the response of Torontonians. Canada is the only country in the world that allows its population to sponsor refugees, but doing so requires a major financial and social commitment.

“Canada put visa officers into the camps to process the files, they weren’t sitting in remote embassies somewhere shuffling paper”  

Syrian refugees have grown to number 4 million, now living in desperate conditions in camps in nearby countries. Omidvar says it is time to ramp up the response as Canada did for the Viet Namese in the 1980’s. “Canada put visa officers into the camps to process the files, they weren’t sitting in remote embassies somewhere shuffling paper”

The European crisis became an issue in Canada’s federal election campaign today when the candidates were asked for their responses. Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party candidate, said refugee resettlement alone would not solve the crisis. He said Canada is providing humanitarian aid, and accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees over 4 years, but without a military response to the Islamic State, who are behind the current crisis, there will be no solution.

Thomas Mulcair, the New Democratic Party candidate, said Canada is not pulling its weight. He vowed to take the crisis more seriously and increase number of refugees though he did not specify numbers. Justin Trudeau, the Liberal Party candidate, said his government would accept 25,000 Syrian refugees, and they would be government-sponsored.

Ratna Omidvar says we need to put boots on the ground to process applications and get those in need from the camps to Canada, And she suggested it is time to look at waving some regulations such as the ‘safe third country’ provision. Visa officers could go to Hungary or Germany and process applications where the crisis is building.