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Committee recommends better settlement services for vulnerable refugees

Yazidi refugees face barriers in accessing affordable housing, mental health services, report says
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Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette, left, greets mother Nofa Mihlo Rafo as friends and family are reunited with 12-year-old Emad Mishko Tamo, third from right, in Winnipeg on August 17, 2017. (David Lipnowski/The Canadian Press)

A commons committee says Canada needs to increase its refugee resettlement targets and offer more robust services to vulnerable groups like the Yazidis.

The federal Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration delivered its report last week on a study it conducted looking at resettlement issues faced by Yazidi women and children in Canada.

The report says Yazidi refugees faced barriers in accessing affordable housing and mental health services in their mother tongue after arriving in Canada.

Some committee witnesses called for Canada to bring more Yazidi refugees to Canada.

But others, including the UN refugee agency, raised concerns about the politicization of Canadian resettlement programs that target specific groups.

The committee is calling for better and more integrated settlement services for Yazidi refugees in their own language and for Canada to increase its refugee resettlement targets overall in the wake of a global refugee crisis.

The Canadian Press

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