Refugees and Migration

The United Church cannot respond to the many appeals seeking admission to Canada it receives from among the 20 million refugees under the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or many million more migrants abroad.

We cannot sponsor

• refugee claimants located in a country that is signatory to the Geneva Convention (i.e., European countries); refugee claimants must seek the protection of their first country of asylum
• refugee claimants for whom the durable solutions of repatriation and/or local integration is recommended (i.e., Afghanistan or Sudan)

We can only sponsor

• those people determined to be Geneva Convention Refugees or members of the Country of Asylum or Source Country Class and in need of Canada's protection/resettlement. The Government of Canada ultimately determines who is in need of resettlement, is admissible, and/or can be sponsored into Canada.

We strongly encourage our congregations to consider sponsorship of refugees who are referred to us by the Visa Post or overseas church partners. To preserve the sponsorship lifeline for those who most need it, we will sponsor only those we believe to be eligible.

We will continue to work with our overseas church partners around the world to try to ease the situation of refugees in asylum countries and to help make repatriation possible.

We remain deeply concerned for the hundreds of thousands of refugees being warehoused in rural and urban camps, sometimes for generations. We do not believe this is how God intended life to be lived.

We advise any individuals who believe they may be eligible for resettlement to Canada to seek an appointment with the Protection Officer of the local United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office to discuss their refugee-like situation and the options available to them. Canadian Visa Posts will consider referrals from the UNHCR. In most countries, it is not possible to approach the Canadian High Commission/Embassy (the Visa Post) without a referral.

For more information, please contact:

Khwaka Kukubo
The United Church of Canada
Tel: 416-231-5931 ext. 4068
Toll-free: 1-800-268-3781 ext. 4068