“Not very transparent”, inadequate, “cruel and inhuman”… The choice by lot of refugee families who will be able to come to Quebec still arouses as much discontent among groups and sponsoring organizations. The second exercise of its kind since the changes made to the regulations of the 2021 program, this “lottery” has still not reached its target, which has gone from 750 to 825 files this year.
Alessandra Santopadre, who takes care of sponsorships at the Diocese of Montreal, considers herself lucky — but sad at the same time — that only one of her 20 applications was not selected in the April 12 draw. “When she found out, the family cried a lot and was looking for an explanation. I said to him: “An explanation, there is none in a draw. It’s nobody’s fault, not you or me,” she said. It is the government that chose to go with this system. »
Member of a sponsorship group, Nancy Greene-Grégoire said she was very disappointed to see that none of the three files of Afghan families that she supported were retained. “It was horrible to announce that,” she said. She regrets having learned by chance, speaking to an organization, that the draw had been made. “We had no email or phone to inform us [de la tenue] the draw or the results,” she says, denouncing the lack of transparency in the process. “It’s like a real lottery: we don’t contact you if you don’t win. But these are human lives! »
Action Réfugiés Montréal, an organization with a lot of experience in sponsorship, had to deal with a situation that many others feared: having to tell a family that their case had not been selected, but that of their adult child — which must necessarily be treated separately — had been. “We didn’t want the families to be put in the dilemma of having to choose whether or not she separated, but we took a chance in one case and, unfortunately, it happened,” said Paul Clarke, acting director. of ARM, whose files had a success rate of 85% (17 out of 20).
Although 18 of the 20 files submitted by the Jesuit Refugee Service were selected, this does not mean that the method of drawing lots is adequate, underlines Hugo Ducharme, responsible for sponsorships. “The problems have not been corrected, they are the same as last year,” he laments. Random selection does not allow organizations to modulate their efforts according to the needs of families.
Places still vacant
According to a recent press release from the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI), a draw took place on April 12 under the supervision of external auditors and in the presence of witnesses. Among the 1,677 requests sent to MIFI between January 18 and February 16, 2022, a total of 743 sponsorship requests were selected, i.e. 425 requests from individuals (groups of two to five people) and 318 from organizations.
Thus, 82 places out of the 825 offered this year remained vacant.
The Ministry was unable to explain this fact within the time available, but according to information obtained by The duty, these would be places reserved for organizations located in the regions that have not been filled for lack of a sufficient number of files. Hugo Ducharme, of the Jesuit Refugee Service, believes that “the least we could do” would have been for the ministry to give these 82 vacant places to files sponsored by organizations in Montreal, which are overwhelmed with requests. “Each case is a family of 5-6 people or more,” he says.
Beyond the method used to select the files – which had moreover been chosen by the former Minister of Immigration Simon Jolin-Barrette following confusion revealed in our pages – the problem will only be solved if the targets are raised, says Mr. Ducharme. “We see it with crisis situations [en Ukraine et en Afghanistan]. Quebec is able to accommodate more people. »
With the MIFI having just tightened regulations following an investigation into cases of fraud, it is high time to recognize the expertise of experienced organizations like its own, he believes. “This year, the only difference between a regular organization and an experienced organization was 10 more tokens in the draw. We Jesuits have been sponsoring people for 40 years! »