In quarantine hotels, Afghan refugees say they lack basics. ‘We don’t have enough clothes’
Global News
Ottawa is committed to resettling 40,000 Afghan refugees, but those in Canada's quarantine hotels right now say they're lacking essentials as they await their paperwork.
In a hotel parking lot not far from Toronto’s main international airport, several Afghan refugees dig through boxes and bags of donated clothes in the trunk of a car.
They’re looking for winter coats and shoes that might fit their children, and seasonally appropriate clothing for themselves. Many don’t have money to spare after arriving in Canada, and support payments from the federal government haven’t kicked in yet.
A settlement agency has been tasked with looking after them while they wait to be moved into more permanent housing but the refugees say many of their basic needs aren’t being adequately addressed.
“We don’t have enough clothes, enough boots,” says Sardar Khan Shinwari, who has been living in a hotel room with his wife and four children since mid-October.
“Right now my boots, they are size 11, and I wear size eight … I got them second-hand.”
Shinwari is among some 770 Afghan refugees currently housed in two hotels near the airport.
His family has completed the quarantine required by pandemic rules but they remain at the hotel, dependent on the settlement agency, as they wait for the federal government to process their applications and issue their permanent residency cards.
Government workers provided some clothing at the airport, but it was ill-fitting, Shinwari says. Living in the hotel for an extended period has also meant the family has no access to laundry facilities or their own kitchen, and there are no nearby grocery stores or easily accessible playgrounds for the children, he says.