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Burundi Family to be Sponsored by New Refugee Group
Volume 30 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: April 5, 2016
A family of five now living in a refugee camp in Rwanda will be brought to Canada as quickly as possible if a newly formed refugee sponsorship group has anything to say about it.
Athanase Yamuremye and his wife Floriane Munyana and their three children are close friends of Canadian Anselme Hategekimana and his wife, Antoinette, residents of Victoria. Anselme was born in Rwanda, has lived in Canada since 2001, while his wife, an audiologist, is a second generation Canadian. Anselme is in the employ of Telus. He and Athanase, who is a medical doctor, had family connections before Mr. Hategekimana left his homeland. They have kept up their friendship via the internet.
EARLIER PRECECEDENT
A family of five now living in a refugee camp in Rwanda will be brought to Canada as quickly as possible if a newly formed refugee sponsorship group has anything to say about it.
Athanase Yamuremye and his wife Floriane Munyana and their three children are close friends of Canadian Anselme Hategekimana and his wife, Antoinette, residents of Victoria. Anselme was born in Rwanda, has lived in Canada since 2001, while his wife, an audiologist, is a second generation Canadian. Anselme is in the employ of Telus. He and Athanase, who is a medical doctor, had family connections before Mr. Hategekimana left his homeland. They have kept up their friendship via the internet.
EARLIER PRECECEDENT
During 2015 Anselme became involved with attempting to halt a deportation of Yapo Abe, a native of Ivory Coast who immigrated to Victoria five years earlier to take a job as a chef in a high end restaurant. The job did not work out but a change of regime in Ivory Coast meant Mr. Abe felt at risk to return as he had been closely associated with the previous regime as a palace chef. For five years Yapo lived under the shadow of imminent deportation and last summer it came to a head.
Anselme called former members of St. Andrew Refugee Association (SARA), now defunct (1979-2013) and received such a good response with his efforts that he later wondered whether such energy could not be similarly mobilized to save his friends with their three young children.
Unfortunately Yapo Abe had to go back to his homeland. Ill health had also become a factor and so far he seems safe from any of the feared tribal retribution. The group that worked to help Yapo still sends him periodic bits of money to assist with his transition.
In trying to prevent the deportation, over a two week period Anselme and his newly found associates contacted the Member of Parliament, an immigration lawyer, media contacts as well as the federal immigration department. Meetings were held with church groups and those in the community who wished to contribute ideas and financially to the project.
The new West Africa Sponsorship group includes as members Patrick and James Jamieson, formerly the founder of SARA at the Catholic cathedral in 1979. This was at the time of the Vietnamese Boat People crisis which paralleled the current massive effort to help Syrian refugees. Other members include Dale Perkins and Marnie Butler, former editor of Island Catholic News, as well as Gez Tadesse and Joseph Tarpeh, close friends of Mr. Jamieson senior, and beneficiaries of earlier SARA efforts in the 1980s and 90s.
Already the group has outlined the situation to a staff member at The Intercultural Association (ICA) which has a Sponsorship Agreement with the federal government.
FINANCIAL COSTS
It was estimated that full sponsorship (which requires the group to take full responsibility for the family for its first year in Canada) would costs 40,000. Fifteen thousand dollars is required for ICA to begin the federal sponsorship process, so fund raising is the top priority. One suggested strategy is to approach ten Christian parishes in the city, ones that have a successful history of supporting refugee sponsorship and ask them for $1,500 each to get to the fifteen thousand dollar mark quickly.
ICA estimates that this would entail a two to three year process. Sponsorships out of Africa are among the slowest due to staff shortage and great distances between Canadian processing stations for applications. On the other hand, SARA’s experience has been that it can be a shorter time than that or take as long as five years.
In the meantime Anathase and Floriane have their life on hold at a critical period of their family life, so the new committee is feeling the special urgency that comes with these situations. They have been cleared by United Nations Registration as refugees and have their papers in order awaiting the interview at a Canadian consulate which is the first major hurdle at their end.
In recent weeks refugee sponsorship agencies have been commenting in the media on the new cause of delays for cases such as this family resulting from the federal government's complete and successful dedication to getting twenty five thousand Syrians settled in Canada since last fall’s election.