Seven more Tibetans arrive in the Lower Mainland
Posted November 20, 2014 11:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Another handful of refugees from Tibet has arrived in Vancouver.
They are a portion of 1,000 Tibetan refugees that the prime minister promised Canada would accept as part of an agreement made with the Dalai Lama back in 2007.
“Anybody that has been remotely involved in this project has found it incredibly satisfying,” says Ray Yee of the Project Tibet Society, a nation-wide organization that oversees the relocation of the refugees.
Seven people, including a two-year-old, are the latest to be resettled in the Lower Mainland.
They follow the first group of 21 refugees that arrived last December – a group, Yee says, that’s already finding success in Canada.
“Everybody is employed in everything from dishwashing to cashiering. Some are hoping to get into home care and nursing. Some have come with nursing certificates from India, but they need to get retrained.”
Another wave of newcomers is expected in January.
The refugees have been living in northeastern India, but are considered stateless. Many are the adult children of Tibetans who left when China invaded Tibet back in the 1950s. The Indian government conducts a lottery to determine who will go to Canada.
Canada has until 2016 to accept the refugees under the agreement. Yee is confident the program will reach its goal.
“The Lower Mainland alone has submitted another 30 sponsorships. We’re feeling pretty good about the numbers and succeeding in getting all one thousand refugees into Canada.”
Because the program prohibits the newcomers from applying for social assistance, many of the refugees are being sponsored. Of the seven who arrived this week, a Catholic parish is supporting a family of three, the United Church is sponsoring two ladies, a synagogue is responsible for one woman, and the Tibet Cultural Society is assisting another woman.
Individuals who didn’t secure sponsorships are being helped out at a transition house in Burnaby.
