Making Red Deer more welcoming to refugees from Afghanistan and other countries is the goal of the local immigration partnership.
Red Deer Local Immigration Partnership is one of the several organizations across Alberta that’s leading the Refugees Welcome Here Campaign. This a public awareness campaign aims to encourage Albertans and Red Deerians to welcome refugees, based on principles of equity and non-discrimination, which are are at the heart of human rights.
The current aim of the campaign is to help create a welcoming and inclusive community for the arrival of Afghan refugees.
Recently, Calgary was chosen to be Canada’s second port of entry for Afghan refugees, with about 5,000 refugees arriving in the coming months. Toronto was the first port of entry, receiving Afghan refugees since September.
Smaller cities, such as Red Deer, have also started welcoming Afghan refugees into their communities in the past month.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are 2.2 million Afghan refugees living in countries neighbouring Afghanistan with another 2.9 million internally displaced. Canada has pledged to resettle 40,000 Afghans.
“This campaign is a great way to build better understanding of the plight of refugees,” says Ezgi Sarioglu, program manager for the Red Deer Local Immigration Partnership.
“This is the time to show how much of a warm and welcoming Red Deer truly is. This is also a great tie-in to our own local anti-racism campaign coming up in January ,” Sarioglu added.
The RDLIP is a community-based partnership aiming to create a community which openly receives immigrants and refugees and embraces cultural diversity.
Understanding the needs of newcomers and providing them with access to a full range of services and participation is a win-win for the newcomers as well as the community, states the partnership.