Iraqi Kurdistan: Sponsorship Groups and Canadian Resources

iraqi kurdistan: Private sponsorship groups and the government have been trying to find a way to get refugees out of the area for months, but have been stymied by a lack of Canadian resources on the ground, according to Hamilton Spectator. That the Immigration Department is sending in a team is one result of ongoing political pressure on the Liberal government to continue a flat-out push to resettle refugees in the spirit of the program that saw 25,000 Syrians brought to Canada in a matter of months. It the first time Canadian staff will go to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, expressly for that purpose. This week, the House of Commons immigration committee will apply more pressure. The fact there are few legal avenues beyond private sponsorship for those fleeing conflict to immigrate to Canada on humanitarian grounds is a quirk of United Nations definitions around refugees and displaced people and a resettlement policy that dates back to 1951, said Borys Wrzesnewskyj, the Liberal chair of the committee. They're holding an unprecedented series of summer meetings examining how to use immigration policy to help anyone, not just refugees, displaced by conflict come to Canada. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.