Canada needs to better support refugees - that was the key message coming from the Canadian Council for Refugees, which held a national conference in Burnaby recently.
"We need to continue and reopen the doors and be proud to protect refugees," said Loly Rico, the council's president.
The three-day conference was held at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, from May 30 to June 1, to share best practices and advice on how to create secure and welcoming communities for refugees.
The majority of attendees were settlement workers, lawyers and community agency representatives, mostly from the Lower Mainland but also from across Canada.
Rico said the number of refugees Canada takes in has declined, meanwhile changes to Canadian immigration law allow for less access to protection.
"We need to change the narrative. We need to mobilize Canadian opinion in the way the government can take responsibility to protect refugees, as a government, as a country. They are responsible as signatories to the U.N. refugee convention," Rico said. "We need to see how we can bring more refugees to Canada. The numbers of refugees that have been coming to Canada last year and this year have been going down, more so than in the last 14 years."
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, there are an estimated 10.5 million refugees around the world, and the federal government is increasing Canadian intake by 20 per cent each year, with up to 14,500 refugees accepted in 2013.
Yet the Canadian Council for Refugees states there has been a "dramatic decrease" in the number of refugees resettled in Canada for 2012, contrary to government's promises to help more people.
According to the council, 26 per cent fewer refugees came to Canada in 2012. The government's 2012 target was to bring in 13,000 refugees, both government-assisted and privately sponsored, but the actual total was 9,624, a decrease from 12,947 in 2011, and 12,097 in 2010.
Rico said she thinks the drop may be connected to changes in Canadian immigration law that make it more difficult to come to Canada.
On May 30, the Burnaby Intercultural Planning Table held a dinner and forum on refugee issues to coincide with the national conference, and Mayor Derek Corrigan addressed the crowd, saying Burnaby was a city of immigrants, while expressing concern for changes to immigration law that allow the minister to designate certain countries as safe, and therefore not producing refugees.
Rico commended the work done in Burnaby to welcome and settle refugees.
"One of the things I really enjoy is to see how Burnaby, the whole community, (is) protecting refugees, and they were very committed . to integrate immigrants and refugees in their community. I was really impressed how the mayor was very pro-refugees and very updated on the (legal) changes," she said. "I believe Burnaby is one of the example cities."
