Paralegal position in peril at Manitoba’s only agency that helps asylum seekers

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This article was published 28/09/2015 (3445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Monday morning, Sahra Ali Ahmed and her six-year-old son Amin, who walked into Canada at Emerson on the weekend, began the second and more difficult leg of their journey — filling out their refugee claim forms.

Now the only agency that helps asylum seekers file a refugee claim in Manitoba may have to throw in the towel. The Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council says it runs a deficit to keep the program going but is running out of money.

“As of Sept. 1, we don’t have any money for that program,” said Rita Chahal, executive director.

The board of the non-profit organization has supported the paralegal work to help refugee claimants as part of its “raison d’être,” she said. It will decide at its board meeting next week whether it can keep providing the service.

It runs Welcome Place on Bannatyne Avenue that resettles and shelters government-assisted refugees. It used to shelter refugee claimants until the federal government ordered the agency to stop housing anyone but government-assisted refugees.

“We have to work with other sources where we can find them a place to stay,” said Chahal. “A lot know someone in Winnipeg but a significant number don’t — they have no place to stay.”

Staff at Welcome Place, which is closed on weekends, have sometimes taken people to their homes, she said. They’ve directed people to the Salvation Army for shelter and food banks for sustenance.

Ottawa also stopped funding services for refugee claimants, like the paralegal work they’ve been funding with donations. Its full-time refugee claims counsellor has many years of “crucial” experience with the complex process, said Chahal. A mound of legal paper work has to be correct and complete. It forms the basis for their refugee claim to stay in Canada, which is decided by an adjudicator after their Immigration and Refugee Board hearing.

“This is not something an individual volunteer, on a piecemeal basis, can do,” Chahal said. “It really has to be managed professionally by someone familiar with the issues who has relationships with other organizations.”

The service is needed more than ever before, Chahal said.

They’re expecting 200 more refugee claims to be added to the caseload in the coming year. They have 100 so far this year.

Each claim involves reams of complicated legal documents that have to be filed within 15 days of the refugee claimant’s arrival in Canada. Until they’ve opened a refugee claim, claimants can’t apply for provincial income assistance or legal aid.

“Many don’t speak English and don’t understand the process,” said Chahal. “They really are homeless and stateless.”

Amin and his mother Sahra Ali Ahmed arrived in Canada Saturday after being dropped off in North Dakota and walking through fields for six hours with three other Somali refugee claimants. Ahmed said she and her son spent several months in Minneapolis. They had little hope of being granted permanent residence in the U.S. so they headed north hoping Canada would let them stay. Canada Border Services Agency officers phoned around to find them shelter. The settlement manager at Hospitality House Refugee Ministry in Winnipeg picked them up at the border town on Sunday and scrambled to find them accommodations.

The Somali community in Winnipeg wasn’t able to take anyone in, said Karin Gordon. She was able to make room for them at the Hospitality House residence, with a mattress on the floor and two of the women sharing a double bed. One of the men caught a bus Sunday night to Toronto where he has relatives.

The other man, Feysal Osman Malen, tracked down his missing cellphone at the Emerson Inn. A Good Samaritan was dropping it off in Winnipeg, said Gordon.

On Monday, the asylum seekers went to Welcome Place to open a refugee claim while it still offers the paralegal service. Readers who saw their story in the Free Press stepped up to help. One dropped off a guitar, a plush moose toy and $50 in Value Village gift certificates for Amin and his mother to get winter clothes. Others offered toys and places to stay.

The asylum seekers, meanwhile, can’t work or register for language programs or classes until their refugee claim is determined.

“Kids and parents sit in absolute limbo,” said Gordon.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca