Drawing lots, red tape, long delays… On the occasion of World Refugee Day, groups and sponsoring organizations are denouncing the “unhumane” treatment that Quebec and Canada reserve for thousands of refugees who are waiting in various places in the world that we analyze their file.
Eva Gracia-Turgeon is part of a group of doctors and civil servants who sponsors a family of nine people from Congo and Burundi, currently refugees in a camp in Uganda. They are a couple who had a baby and the couple’s father’s six siblings. “It’s so long, we don’t know what to say to them. We still hope that we will see them soon, but deep down, we realize that the baby will grow up in the camp,” says the young woman, who is the coordinator of an aid organization for refugees.
In July, the group will have been waiting for a year to find out if the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) will accept them as sponsors. “We are at the stage of validating our own files. It’s ridiculous that it’s taking so long. It’s impossible not to pass. »
Mme Gracia-Turgeon is not kind to the ARRIMA computer system, the department’s platform for processing files. “It’s Kafkaesque and arbitrary. There are always bugs. […] The other day, I received a message at 2 a.m., I was super stressed to go see and, finally, it was a technical error, ”she says. “It’s made for you to get lost and lose your patience. »
This bureaucratic heaviness does not embody the humanitarian nature of the program, she believes. “I have the feeling that we forget that these are people at the other end,” she laments.
Increasing deadlines
Manon Leroux, who is in her second sponsorship experience, has noticed an increase in processing times at the Quebec Immigration Department. For his first sponsorship of a Syrian family in 2016-2017, the file was accepted by the MIFI after only three months. Filed in January 2020, its 2e sponsorship application took a year to be accepted.
It should be noted that over the past five years, the program has undergone numerous reforms. After long moratoriums to allow the flow of files and an investigation for fraud by certain organizations, new administrative rules have come to frame the program, and a system of drawing lots has been imposed. In 2018, under the Liberals, quotas limiting sponsorship applications to 750 were introduced, when there was no limit. During the last call for files in February 2022, the limit was increased slightly, to 825 files.
For Paul Clarke, acting director of Action Réfugiés Montréal, it is “inhumane” to have to wait a year before the Quebec Immigration Department authorizes sponsorship. “Imagine going to the bank to apply for a mortgage and they tell you to come back in a year to find out if you’re approved or not,” says this banker by profession.
Without questioning the importance of audits, he nevertheless believes that the department should equip itself with a structure capable of responding within a reasonable timeframe. “It’s humanitarian. It takes management that responds in a human way. »
MIFI spokesperson Émilie Vézina explains that “given the issues related to the integrity of the program in 2020 and 2021, the processing of applications requires more in-depth reviews, which lengthens average processing times” . But the ministry claims to have made more efforts to reduce the pending files and the delay, which would currently be 92 working days since 1er April 2022.
A decried lottery
Beyond deadlines, the draw system, which is in its 2e year, continues to be decried. In addition to playing with “human lives”, he is criticized for not taking into account withdrawals. For example, 17 of the 20 files submitted by Action Réfugiés Montréal had won the lottery, but two of them have since withdrawn from the program themselves. However, the MIFI refused to allow the organization to submit two other requests to replace these disclaimers.
“Only applications submitted between January 18 and February 16, 2022, eligible and having been drawn by lot, can be presented and examined”, can we read in a letter written by the Directorate of Family and Humanitarian Immigration (DIFH) of the ministry.
This year, in 2022, of the 1,677 applications received, 743 were selected by lot, less than the 825 places possible. This is explained by the fact that certain categories of sponsors, such as organizations in the regions, submitted a lower number of requests than what they were allowed. This shortfall is not made up for by too many files received in the other categories.
“I’m not saying that the Directorate of Family and Humanitarian Immigration doesn’t care about refugees. But the humanitarian sponsorship program is falling. It seems to be made to discourage people,” says Sylvain Thibault, ex-coordinator of the sponsorship component of the Round Table of Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants.
The man who is also involved in three different sponsorships, including that of the Congolese and Burundians mentioned earlier, recalls that it is all the more important that the MIFI acceptance stage be quickly completed than the following one, that of obtaining refugee status and permanent residence with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is particularly long. “The delays are currently 33 months for Uganda”, drops Mr. Thibault, discouraged. “By this count, they won’t be here until 2025.”