WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - Local sponsors Marcus Askar (right) and Juhar
Hargaaya, with dozens of files of African refugees with sponsors in
Canada who've fled to Djibouti.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Officials slam door on Djibouti hopefuls with city patrons.
It's home to pirates and terrorists, but to many refugees, Djibouti
was a safe haven while waiting to join relatives in Winnipeg. Lately,
it's been their curse. Since May, 158 refugees with sponsors in Winnipeg
have been told they're not welcome in Canada.
To those who've been sending money to
support people stuck in limbo for years in the chaotic African seaport,
it's devastating news.
"I worry about the young people," said Marcus Askar, who came to Winnipeg as a Somali refugee in 1996.
"Those who are 20 to 23, they've got a
lot of energy -- they need education and they need hope," said Askar,
who has sponsored more than 100 refugees, helped them settle and find
jobs.
Coming to Canada was their one crack at a
constructive life and prosperous future. Refugees waiting in Djibouti
have now been refused that chance.
Djibouti is a small nation in the Horn of Africa with the population of Winnipeg.
"When the door closed, they may go back to Somalia, where fundamentalists or al-Qaida will give them hope," Askar said.
"When the gates closed and hope is gone, somebody else will give them hope."
The refusal letters from Citizenship and
Immigration Canada officers in Djibouti are almost identical, with
various reasons attached: "I found you were vague and not credible" --
the officer didn't believe them because family members said they got to
Djibouti using different transportation. Or they were "credible," but
the officer didn't believe going back to Ethiopia or Somalia put them at
risk.
To Juhar Hargaaya, that's unbelievable.
"You can't go back to Ethiopia," said the
Ethiopian refugee, who came to Canada in 1990 and has since sponsored
more than 100 others who've fled.
Djibouti sends Ethiopians back to Ethiopia, where they are jailed, said Hargaaya.
His Winnipeg-raised son,
Fewaz, 22, has been imprisoned in Ethiopia for more than two years.
Fewaz was selling electronics from Canada and carrying sponsorship
documents critical of the Ethiopian regime that were intended for
refugees in Djibouti.
He's most worried about the four children
of a 43-year-old Oromo woman who fled persecution in Ethiopia for
Djibouti. Hargaaya sponsored the five of them and supplemented the mom's
meagre income from selling clothes. One day, she didn't return home and
is believed dead. After losing their mom, her children lost their
chance to come to Canada. A Canadian immigration officer in Djibouti
believed the kids' story, but thought they were safe where they were and
refused them entry to Canada. Hargaaya said he fears for the future of
those children, who range in age from 15 to 23.
Askar said the flat-out rejection of so
many in Djibouti is questionable and a waste of money, human potential
and tax revenue for Canada.
"It's a financial drain -- it's
disappointing," said Askar, who was privately sponsored by the Home
Street Mennonite Church. He's held down two jobs at a time to sponsor
more refugees and pay that kindness forward.
Askar and the Somalis here he's sponsored rally to help, and new arrivals have jobs within a month, he said.
Hargaaya said many end up working in
decent-paying jobs most people don't want -- a meat-processing plant in
Brooks, Alta., and the Alberta oilsands.
"They come here very quickly and are self-supporting," said Askar.
Instead of spending money helping them
get settled in Canada, the private sponsors will keep sending them money
in Djibouti to survive.
The largest private sponsor of refugees
says chaos, corruption and despair have poisoned the atmosphere in
Djibouti for legitimate asylum-seekers. It seems Canadian immigration
officials there are just saying no to everyone, said Tom Denton,
executive director of Hospitality House Refugee Ministry.
"These are human beings," said Denton,
who has written to the federal government about the "alarming" number of
refusals in Djibouti.
He's asked for sponsored refugees there to get another interview.
They are in "triple jeopardy: the reasons
for their flight from their homeland, the dangers inherent in life in
Djibouti, and the probability of refusal by Canada even when sponsored,"
the letter said.
"These are real lives," Denton said in an interview. "This is not a numbers game."