I Welcome Refugees

Today, we want you to hear and share stories of refugees.

Whether you go along to a refugee group in your community and hear stories told there, or just read the many stories about refugees on UNHCR’s website, listen to people’s stories as this is the best way to understand the issues facing refugees.

The more you listen, the more you ask questions, the better you will understand refugees and see that these are just people in a really difficult situation.

And you might be surprised about how much you get from this experience.

You’ve shown until now how much you care, so could you befriend a refugee and help them settle into your local community?

You may have to do a bit of research to find a local group that can facilitate this, but a good first place to check is with the organizations that provide services to refugees in your Community

Refugees that have the support of local people tend to settle in much better, so you would be making a huge difference to their lives.

It could be just a question of meeting someone for a coffee every now and then, to help them work out any issues they may have, or you could be a lot more hands-on and help a recently arrived refugee family navigate the welfare system in your country or register in school or learn to speak English. 

Yesterday we talked about finding or creating a safe space online or in your local community where you can meet likeminded people who also care about refugees.

Well, today we’re asking you to look into actual, real-life safe spaces you might find in your area. You might be able to find landlords locally that are willing to give a room or a whole property to refugees, or perhaps you have a space you can offer in your own home?

You could offer a place for refugees to stay in the short-term, or find people that are willing to do so.

Contact refugee service organizations in your community to find out how you can help them meet the needs of refugees in your community

Amir, a refugee from Syria, fled to Turkey and managed to learn Turkish, find work, and a place to live relatively easily. So he decided to rent out the rooms in his house to others fleeing Syria, so he could help and support them and make things easier for them in Turkey.

We told you yesterday about the story of Baraa , who we were able to help thanks to the support of people like you. We can’t thank you enough for all that you’re doing to help refugees.

Today, we’re asking you to speak out about the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in detention centres in Canada.

Did you know that over the last 10 years over 800 children have been held in immigration detention in Canada? Children are placed in detention with or without their families for several weeks, and sometimes for up to a year. In February 2016 a 16 year old Syrian refugee boy was help in solitary confinement in immigration detention for 3 weeks.

To really make a difference to refugees, you need to understand the scale of the problem.

But behind each and every number, behind every image of crowds of people waiting in refugee camps – behind each of these is a person, like Ahmed.

He’d spent his life working in his 300-person capacity restaurant, which welcomed scores of tourist buses every day. He was well known where he lived, and much loved by tourists and locals alike.

But the war in Syria changed everything. Both his home and his restaurant were destroyed by bombs so he fled to another city with his family, including his two young children, Aya and Read. But even there they weren’t safe, so Ahmed made the difficult decision to leave his beloved country to seek safety in Jordan. .

Read outside his home in Toronto

By Charmain Mohamed

Two years ago an image of a little boy in a red T-shirt, face down on a Mediterranean beach, brought home the full horror of the humanitarian crisis unfolding on Europe’s shores. Alan Kurdi, from the Syrian town of Kobani, was just three years old when he, together with his mother and his older brother, drowned on the dangerous crossing from Turkey to Greece. While the crisis was not news, it briefly seemed that the international outcry might shock world leaders into action.

The thing refugees need above all is a lasting, long-term solution. Without this, they have no real hope of rebuilding their lives.

Imagine: you’re forced to flee your home and escape to another country. There, you are recognized as a refugee by either the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, or the local authorities. But you still face threats, abuses like sexual violence, or problems getting life-saving medical treatment.

UNHCR will decide if you urgently need protection in another country. This is called resettlement. Canada, for example, opened its doors to 25,000 Syrian refugees between November 2015 and February 2016. Every single one reached their new home country in the only obvious way: by plane.

But unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of refugees who qualify for resettlement have actually received that all-important call saying they can move abroad.