By Greg Nikkel
The chair of Weyburn’s Syrian Refugee Committee is “very disappointed” that the federal government has stopped processing any refugee families, and Weyburn may not get their families until the end of 2016 or even 2017.
“We don’t know when they’re going to be coming,” said Don Horner, noting he had received a letter from federal Immigration minister John McCallum in early May stating that privately-sponsored refugees would not arrive until either the end of this year or early next year.
“Or, it could be next month,” shrugged Horner, shaking his head in frustration, noting they had initially thought their first family would’ve been here by January, then February or March.
They have been in touch with Public Safety minister Ralph Goodale, who indicated they would check into the status of the refugee families — and they have yet to receive any answer either.
The difficulty this poses for the Weyburn committee is they currently have two rental housing units sitting with furniture and non-perishable food items stocked and ready, and they have to pay rent and utilities while they wait for the families to arrive.
Horner estimates this is costing the committee $1,700 a month to keep the vacant units available, with about $6,500 used so far out of the $100,000 that has been raised from the public.
“If they could tell us when they’re coming, then we could decide what to do with the housing units,” said Horner.
Besides this waste of money, due because the government is not processing the refugees, the committee is also worried about the refugees who are sitting in limbo, waiting to come to Weyburn, including one family that has had their interviews by Immigration officials.
“I said to Mr. Goodale’s staff that this is really disappointing. We need to know when they’re coming. They’ve asked for the birthdates of the refugees so they can check into it,” said Horner, noting they had earlier asked for the case file numbers also.
“It’s frustrating. Here we are, excited and ready to go, and it’s like the wind is taken right out of our sails,” he said.
This is particularly annoying, he added, as he remembers seeing McCallum saying on TV that they had been receiving complaints about the holdup of refugees from other groups, and they were going to expedite their arrival into Canada.
Horner has also asked Souris-Moose Mountain MP Robert Kitchen for his assistance with this matter.
“We’ve done all this work, got all those donations, and now we’re faced with this situation,” said Horner, noting if they could at least get a date, they could decide whether to let the units go and put the furniture in storage until that time. Instead, they were told to have everything ready in case the refugee families arrive at short notice.
The Kabbabe family are currently in the United Arab Emirates, the Wanda family is in Lebanon, and the Handal family is in Turkey.
The single male is in Sweden, and Horner fears that Weyburn may not get approval for him to come as Sweden is considered a “durable solution” by Canada’s immigration officials, even though Sweden wants to expel refugees.
“We have a safe haven and a community that wants to welcome them. We’re ready, our hearts are open and our wallets are open,” said Horner.
