Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to appear before this committee once again regarding the proposed change to Canada's asylum system as outlined in the BIA, the budget implementation act. Providing technical advice to increase efficiencies in the asylum system is an integral part of UNHCR's—the UN refugee agency—advisory role worldwide.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are two parts to your question. One is what we can do inside Venezuela. Very much the UN Secretary General has been offering to assist the Government of Venezuela in the delivery of assistance. You know that over the weekend all the borders, including the maritime border and the special air, were closed by the Government of Venezuela, but the UN stands ready to assist the authorities in delivering humanitarian aid inside the country.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much for reminding me. I should have mentioned it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Indeed, there are a number of trafficking rings operating out of the NCA countries, in particular to Mexico and in Mexico.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not in a position to respond to this question, because we are dealing with the humanitarian side of the crisis.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much for this important question. The funding issue is always critical. I've had the opportunity in the general study to brief the committee that we still receive generous funding from the Middle East and to a lesser extent sub-Saharan Africa. Just to give you some numbers, we started the year in Mexico with 2% of the funding we need to respond in particular to people who are in the caravan or those who come on their own.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our brand is very much focused on refugees, as the name of our institution indicates, but our mandate does not stop when refugees are returning to their countries. We also have the reintegration back home, especially when it's a voluntary repatriation, meaning when people have been able to make a free and informed choice about their return and have not been forced to return.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I'm very happy to be back before this committee as it's an important ally for the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. I'm also particularly pleased that the committee has decided to shed light on the situation in Latin America, because it has been traditionally one of the situations in terms of refugees, forceable movement of people and migration, that has been often under-reported in the media, in the public and sometimes in some of your sister Parliaments abroad.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and honourable members. I am very happy to be back in front of the committee today. I will hand over the floor directly to my colleague, José Samaniego, who will be able to discuss in more detail the response of UNHCR. Perhaps we will propose that the IOM representative speak first, but I am not sure whether that person is online.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The high commissioner came to Canada to say that he counts on the leadership of Canada to be an example for other countries, including in terms of the level of funding dedicated to the response to refugees. Definitely, it makes a difference when we can refer to Canada having increased, for example, its ODA.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You're referring to the global compact for migration and not the global compact on refugees. Is that correct?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's not up to the UNHCR to answer this question. It's up to the International Organization for Migration, and you were joined by a representative from that organization here last week.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our funding requirement's at $8 billion. As I mentioned, we are going to receive approximately $4 billion, so if you were contributing another $1 billion to the UN refugee agency, you would have a major impact, as you can imagine. Even if it was distributed among different humanitarian partners—Canadian NGOs, international NGOs, local NGOs—it would make a massive difference in the lives of people and therefore protect them against the feeling that they have only one choice, which is to continue their roles through all kinds of means, including irregular means and using trafficking.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's one of the issues that overlaps in both contexts, migration and refugees. It's the whole issue of trafficking and smuggling, as well as a few other issues. For the very reason explained by Professor Smith, the concern is that you increase the risk for persons who are already vulnerable, because they are fleeing situations of persecution or conflict, to fall into the hands of criminal organizations, hoping they will be helped to find safety but being trapped into trafficking and sexual and other forms of exploitation and contemporary forms of slavey.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  UNHCR has no position on this issue. IRCC and GAC colleagues have responded that they are going to explore very closely the legal and policy framework that will be required to do so. What is important for my organization as well as all the NGOs is that whether or not this works, we need additional funding to deliver the services that are required on the ground to protect and assist refugees.