New partnership will provide sponsorship money to same-sex refugees
Citizenship and Immigration Canada has partnered with the Rainbow refugee Committee to help share the cost of sponsoring gay refugees.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada is providing $100,000 to the Committee, which will be used to support the refugees with income for three months. The Committee itself will help the refugees with food, clothing, accommodation and orientation services.
“These funds are a welcome first step in response to the crisis facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the globe, at a time when seventy-seven countries continue to criminalize homosexuality and five prescribe the death penalty,” said Egale Canada, a national LGBT human rights organization. “The Rainbow Refugee Committee provides critical support to asylum seekers fleeing homophobic and transphobic persecution in their countries of origin.”
Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Kenney’s Statement
“Encouraging private sponsors to come forward is vital to refugees in need of protection and to the future of the private sponsorship program,” said Minister Kenney, “Canada has a proud tradition of opening its doors to people from around the world and providing a safe haven to those in need of protection. The Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program plays a significant role in the resettlement of refugees from across the globe.”
Intake
President & CEO
Michael Niren
Mr. Niren is CEO of VisaPlace LLC and the President and Managing Partner of VisaPlace Legal Canada, an immigration law firm based in Toronto, and VisaPlace Legal US a law firm registered in The District of Columbia, USA. Mr. Niren is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section, American Lawyers Association, and an Associate Member of the American Bar Association.
