More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada since last year, but many of them are still facing significant bureaucratic delays that make integration challenging, a Senate committee heard this week.
The Senate Committee on Human Rights heard Wednesday from several people who have been either sponsoring Syrian refugees or helping them start a new life in Canada.
Angela Keller-Herzog, the core organizer of the Ottawa Centre Refugee Action group, told the committee that many refugees face “bureaucratic challenges” that can have ripple effects on families, their employment opportunities and overall well-being.
She said there seem to be significant delays and “widespread confusion” when it comes to issuing permanent residence cards to newly-arrived refugees. All privately and government-sponsored Syrian refugees were granted permanent resident status upon arrival, but without proper government ID cards, it’s often impossible for them to obtain other forms of ID, Keller-Herzog said.
Some families have been waiting for months to get their identification cards, she told the committee.
It currently takes an average of 41 days to process new permanent residency cards. Citizenship and Immigration spokesperson Sonia Lesage told CTVNews.ca that’s an improvement since May, when the average processing time was 49 days, and a “dramatic improvement” since July 2015, when it took the department about 87 days to issue the cards.
Keller-Herzog said that her group has also seen “undue delays” when it comes to approving “very ordinary” dental services for refugees.
Under the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), refugees get basic health care coverage and supplemental coverage, which includes emergency dental care -- similar to what Canadian provinces and territories offer residents on social assistance. But Keller-Herzog said that “people are waiting for months” for basic dental work, such as filling children’s cavities.
Lesage acknowledged that there is a backlog on requests for urgent dental care. She said the requests surged in April, after Ottawa restored the IFHP benefits for refugees and asylum seekers, which had been cut by the previous Conservative government.
Medavie Blue Cross, which administers IFHP benefits, anticipates that the backlog will be eliminated by the end of November, Lesage said in an email.
Speaking to the Senate committee, Keller-Herzog highlighted another common problem: lack of access to language classes. Women in particular are finding it difficult to attend English or French language classes because there are usually no child care spots available, Keller-Herzog said.
“So they’re left behind.”
Long waiting lists for government-run language classes have been an ongoing issue. As of September, only about 5,400 Syrian refugees had enrolled in federally-funded language courses.
Lesage said that Citizenship and Immigration will spend more than $600 million in 2016-17 on support settlement services for newcomers, which include official language training. She said language classes can also be taken online or by correspondence.
The Senate committee, which is studying the integration of newly-arrived Syrian refugees, also heard that, in many cases, refugees need much more intensive mental health care and social service support than what is currently available.
There is also the ongoing problem with long delays in the processing of refugees who have Canadian sponsors lined up, but are still waiting to come here.
Brian Cornelius of the First United Church, whose members have been sponsoring Syrian refugees, said that many private sponsors are beginning to feel “some fatigue and frustration” as they wait for families to arrive.
“We have all the money in the bank and we can’t spend it,” he said.
