Canada and Colombia

Martin Gottwald: The current agreement between Canada and the UN to resettle 900 Colombians currently in Ecuador expires at the end of his year, according to Metro News. The UN refugee agency acting representative for Colombia says a new agreement would make sense, since helping vulnerable Colombians is key to that country peace process. More than 17,000 Colombian refugees have arrived in Canada over the last ten years seeking a safe haven from the five decades of war in that country. Martin Gottwald is in Canada this week to brief those who decide asylum claims on the state of peace talks in Colombia. The Colombian government is currently negotiating to end over 50 years of conflict with armed guerilla groups, the largest of which is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The ongoing battles have seen 6.7 million displaced inside the country and about 360,000 recognized refugees are living mostly in surrounding countries. He says the situation for the millions of displaced people and refugees remains precarious even with those talks, and finding solutions for them remains a priority. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.