Tuesday July 15, 2014
Trinity United Church is reuniting the Awil Adhar family, refugees from Somalia. (P.E.I. Presbytery)
A church in Charlottetown is reuniting four young Somali refugees with the rest of their family after more than four years trying.
Nasro Awil Adhar and her three younger siblings came to P.E.I. in 2008 through a sponsorship from the Muslim Association of P.E.I. In 2010 Trinity United Church decided to sponsor the rest of the Awil Adhar family.
Harry Kielly of Trinity United told CBC News while it's wonderful three other members of the family will come to Charlottetown July 23 it took a long time to process their papers, and he thinks the Canadian government should be doing more to help refugees.
"Our refugee intake in Canada is minimal on a worldwide basis. They will be one of only a few thousand that will be coming into Canada this year," said Kielly.
"The church sees the unfairness in many cases of the long waits and whatever, and [we] try to give as much support to these people who have been through great stress, strain, family disruption."
CBC News has a request in to Immigration Canada to explain the longer processing time.
Kielly said the average wait for family reunification is usually a year, but families processed through the Nairobi office, as in this case, take an average of 42 months. He said the Nairobi office is responsible for refugees from 12 African countries.