In 2019, Brian and Brent (members of the Calgary-based Rocky Mountain Atheists) joined a “Group of Five (G5)” sponsorship committee (one of the ways Canada allows private citizens to resettle refugees in Canada) to bring a UN recognized refugee, Omer, to Canada.
When Omer expressed doubts about his faith, he had to flee his native country of Pakistan due to threats on his life. Omer has been living in hiding in Nepal for several years.
Though Omer’s should have been a straightforward case, the experience of navigating the bureaucracies of several nations - as well as the COVID-19 pandemic - has been anything but. Brian and Brent describe the challenges they have experienced with bringing Omer to Canada, as well their insights in Canada’s overall refugee system.
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Are those opposed to refugees and migrants prepared to spread the wealth such that the desperate have no reason to come? Absorbing them costs money, as do closed borders... There's no free lunch, so either feed them back home or they'll come to eat yours! All rich countries should be required to allocate a certain percentage of GDP to refugee funding, and those with low intakes (Japan, South Korea) should compensate those with high intakes...
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