Refugee resettlement in the North: Yukon group looks to sponsor 1st family since pandemic began

A refugee sponsorship group in Yukon is aiming to resettle another family in the territory, the first since before the pandemic.

Yukon Cares has been helping resettle refugees in the territory since 2015, when the Syrian refugee crisis was happening. Since then, it has worked to sponsor a new refugee family every 12 to 18 months, mostly working through the federal Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) program. 

The past two years have been a challenge, though. The BVOR program was put on hold during the pandemic, and public health restrictions have added difficulty to resettlement. The last family Yukon Cares sponsored came from South Africa in early 2020, just as pandemic restrictions were beginning. 

"They were flying the day that Trudeau was saying [Canada is] shutting down its borders to everyone who's not Canadian," Meagan Naomi, a member of the Yukon Cares board, recalled. 

"We were all freaking out on our end, just worrying … we just didn't even know what was going to happen."

The family — a mother and three daughters — did end up making it to Canada that day. They stayed in Yukon until last year, when they moved to southern Canada.  

Naomi remembers the sense of relief and also the challenges that followed their arrival: how to support a family amid pandemic restrictions, when many people were in isolation or in family bubbles.

Almost two years later, Naomi says lessons were learned that may help Yukon Cares prepare to welcome the family it is looking to sponsor this year when the BVOR program reopens. And though COVID-19 restrictions and the remoteness of the North can be a challenge, private sponsorship groups in the territories may be well equipped to support refugee resettlement in Canada. 

The global pandemic has made refugee resettlement in Canada difficult, due in part to travel restrictions and slower application processes.

In November, CBC reported that Canada was nowhere near to meeting its goal of welcoming 81,000 refugees by the end of 2021. Figures provided by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) showed the department was only about halfway to its refugee intake target.

While fewer refugees were able to resettle in Canada during the pandemic, those that were able often experienced challenges accessing support within Canada. 

Naomi recalls how Yukon Cares members went to the airport to pick up the South African family in early 2020 — distancing themselves, with masks on, and then bringing the family to their home only to leave them to quarantine for the next few weeks.

"We tried to make it a warm welcome, even though we couldn't all be there," Naomi said. "We would meet with them on Zoom and we had pictures of all of us so by the time they met us, they kind of knew who we all were." 

The resettled family became part of Naomi's family bubble during periods of tighter restrictions. But spaces to be indoors and engage with other residents weren't open for use. That made it difficult to meet people.