April 20, 2016•Update: April 28, 2016
By Barry Ellsworth
TRENTON, Ont.
Immigration consultants are charging Syrian refugees thousands of dollars for arrangements to get to Canada, Canadian media reported Tuesday.
The practice is unethical, critics say, and in some cases violates private sponsorship rules.
The consultants are zeroing in on Syrians living in the Gulf states, presumably because they have more money that those in refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Consultants advertise their services online and rent space in five-star hotels in the region to meet potential clients.
Not only are they charging thousands of dollars to complete and file refugee applications, but some are asking refugees to pay thousands of dollars more for resettlement, “which violates the financial guidelines of the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program,” the CBC reported.
“I find it appalling, honestly,” said Toronto lawyer Jackie Swaisland, member of a group that has helped hundreds of refugees make it to Canada without charging any fees for the group’s services.
The CBC obtained an application agreement from one of the refugees.
Besides a $5,000 lawyer’s fee to process the application, it called for refugees to pay the full cost of settlement before arrival in Canada, ranging from $12,000 for one person to $32,000 for a family of six.
Under Canada’s private sponsorship program, the person or group that wants to sponsor a refugee must raise the funds to resettle the refugees and support the newcomer for one year, not the refugee.
And, Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada rules state that “privately sponsored refugees cannot be made to prepay or repay their own settlement costs.”
As well, they cannot donate to any trust fund established by sponsors to cover the costs.
The idea is to keep refugees from being exploited, as some of the immigration consultants are doing.
Swaisland told the CBC that while immigration consultants can charge a fee, asking for thousands of dollars for those fleeing the Syria war zone is preying on misery.
“There are still people who are incredibly vulnerable,” she said. “There are still people who do not know what tomorrow holds for them and they are in dire circumstances.”
