ARMENIAN CONTROVERSY SHOCK AS CANADA REJECTS IRAQ REFUGEES
Toronto Star
June 23 2008
Canada
Instead of joining kin here, applicants directed to ancestors’ homeland
Jun 23, 2008 04:30 AM Nicholas Keung IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY REPORTER
Azad Sarkissian’s Armenian great-grandparents settled in Iraq more
than a century ago, and none of their descendants has stepped on
Armenian soil since.
His sister and her family fled the violence in Iraq and are
living precariously as United Nations-recognized refugees in
Jordan. Sarkissian, in Toronto, has tried and failed three times
over the past six years to bring them to Canada through a refugee
resettlement application sponsored by the Assyrian Methodist Church
of Canada.
But they were startled and angered by the latest response by a
Canadian visa officer in Damascus, who said the family should go to
Armenia instead.
"We were shocked by the decision," said Sarkissian, a
telecommunications technician who came to Canada as a regular
immigrant in 1997 and is a Canadian citizen. "They have nobody in
Iraq or Armenia. Everyone else is in Canada. Why would Canada want
to separate our family?"
Anjeal Sarkissian, her husband Karabet Aram, and their three boys,
Shant, Agob and Apel, are what refugee advocates say are part of a
worrisome trend as a growing number of Armenian Christian refugees
from Iraq are being rejected and asked to go to Armenia despite having
family connections in Canada. "We are surprised and concerned that
the possibility of residency in Armenia is being used as a basis to
refuse these applications," said Janet Dench, of the Canadian Council
for Refugees.
"As far as we are aware, Canada is the only country that is reaching
the conclusion that Iraqis of Armenian ethnicity are not eligible
for resettlement because of the Armenian option."
A Canadian immigration spokesperson said the department cannot comment
on individual cases out of privacy concerns, but said each application
is assessed on a case-by-case basis and the option to resettle someone
to another country as a "durable solution" is always a factor.
The treatment of Armenian Iraqis reminds Toronto immigration lawyer
Chantal Desloges of how Jewish refugees fleeing the Soviet Union
after its collapse in the 1990s were denied refugee status and told
to resettle in Israel instead.
A client of hers in Syria already tried to go to Armenia after being
rejected by Canada and was refused. "The (Armenian) embassy wouldn’t
give them a refusal letter, so my client can’t even prove it to the
Canadian (officials)," she said.
Under refugee case law, Canada can only refer a refugee claimant to
another state when it is "guaranteed" they would be accepted there,
Desloges said.
Armenia already needs UN help to cope with an influx of Iraqi refugees
and Angus Grant, lawyer for the Sarkissians, said the residency program
that Canadian officials have been citing doesn’t apply to refugees –
a point an Armenian embassy spokesperson in Ottawa confirmed.
"It only allows well-established people in the Armenian diaspora to
come and live in Armenia," explained Arman Akopian.
"We welcome people of Armenian descent to return, but in the time
of the country’s economic transition it’s not encouraged because we
simply can’t absorb an influx of refugees."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
