The Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) is once again inviting non-profit organizations (NPOs) to submit, as of Tuesday, applications for the sponsorship of refugees – with the exception of those registered on a new blacklist, including The duty got a copy.
The ministry prohibits 18 NPOs (see box), which have provided it with “a false or misleading document or information” in the past, from volunteering to welcome a refugee under its Collective Sponsorship Program in 2022.
As reported The duty In its investigation published on Monday, the organization Parrainage Réfugiés du Grand Montréal (PRGM), set up by Montreal businessman of Syrian origin — and owner of the immigration consulting firm Go Canada — Bilal Hamideh, part of the batch.
According to our information, PRGM had suggested to religious organizations that they take Syrian refugees under their wings in return for a certain compensation financed by the refugees themselves and by the donations that the NPO has collected over the past five years, or some 10 millions of dollars.
However, “no one can profit, in any form whatsoever, from a commitment subscribed in favor of a foreign national and the members of his family accompanying him, in particular by the collection of interest on an investment, the collection of fees or the acceptance of a donation”, stipulates the Regulation respecting immigration to Québec.
Remember that participants in the Collective Sponsorship Program must agree, by contract, to “meet the basic needs of refugees and [à] provide them with the necessary support in their integration process” for one year.
Bilal Hamideh maintained that he had not benefited from the support of Syrian refugees provided by PRGM, even if their application files were put together, in the vast majority of cases, by his firm, Go Canada, in return for costs that can amount to several thousand dollars.
Seventeen other NPOs are on the MIFI blacklist, including the Transcultural Educational Association. It goes out of its way to facilitate the immigration of Afghan refugees to Sherbrooke.
30 days flat
Other NPOs will be able to file — like groups of two to five people — between January 18 and February 16, 2022, applications for the sponsorship of refugees as well as, where applicable, their spouse or spouse and their dependent children under the age of 22.
The Collective Sponsorship Program was suspended twice on suspicion of fraud: in January 2017, by Liberal Minister Kathleen Weil, then in October 2020, but only for NPOs, by CAQ Minister Nadine Girault. “This decision is explained by the holding of criminal and administrative investigations targeting organizations following serious allegations that call into question the integrity of the actions of certain organizations and the protection of refugees,” the ministry explained in 2020. .
With “corrections”, the MIFI has “strengthened[cé] the tools and mechanisms to ensure the integrity” of the Collective Sponsorship Program, emphasizes the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Jean Boulet. “The information on the guarantors and organizations will be subject to more rigorous checks”, he indicates to the Duty, while specifying that “organizations at fault will be excluded from the process for a period of two years”.
According to him, “the dubious practices that were employed by some sponsoring organizations in the old version of the program, it is over”.
825 applications will be accepted
One thing is certain, the long lines of people wanting to file a sponsorship application in front of the MIFI headquarters in Montreal are over. The ministry only accepts files submitted on the Arrima platform, which is “a fully digital environment,” recalls Mr. Boulet.
The department will follow up on a maximum of 825 undertaking applications deemed eligible, or 75 more than a year ago. “The selection of applications will be subject to a draw, which will allow the humanitarian objective of sponsorship to be achieved while respecting the values of fairness and transparency”, continues the Minister, who did not see fit to renew with the “first come, first served” rule.