Citizenship and Immigration committee  One thing that I should have said in my presentation, and it's an important point to note, is that children represent 50% of the refugees. If you look at non-displaced populations, children below 18 represent only 30% of the world's population. If you add the women, 75% of our population of refugees and displaced are women and children, so you find exactly the same proportion in those in need of resettlement.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's an important point because unfortunately, we don't, based on the financial situation. We have absolutely no means to provide for any chronic disease medication. In the country of first asylum, in the Middle East, Africa or elsewhere, we cannot provide medication for heart conditions, dialysis, cancer, and so on and so forth.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This is the work of the UN Secretary-General's special representative, Louise Arbour, supported by the IOM, the International Organization of Migration.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One of the main issues is really the funding. The $8 billion that I've indicated, as the chairman has mentioned, is based on data that are collected on a daily basis by all our staff in 130 countries. Therefore, it's an objective assessment and a prioritization of the needs of the refugees in terms of their access to health, to education, to decent shelter, to livelihood opportunities, access to cash and safe shelter for SGBV survivors and so on and so forth.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We are delighted to come back to this committee. Thank you very much for the attention you are giving to the issue of forced displacement. As a UN refugee agency I will not speak to the issue of migration, but I will focus immediately on forcible displacement.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's definitely not a crisis. I think it's very well-managed. It's being done in an orderly and, I want to repeat, very humane manner. People are being temporarily arrested before they actually claim asylum and are processed through CBSA and then IRCC. It's done in a very smooth manner.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have the actual numbers. Out of the 10,000 who crossed irregularly in Quebec, 3,000 may have arrived in Toronto, a city of 10 million inhabitants. In comparison, when I was posted in Lebanon, we had 1.2 million crossing in a few months into a country of 4 million inhabitants, where at least half of them didn't have running water or electricity.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's essential that people can find a safe space where the family can be together and have some sense of privacy. After so many travels, often there is a sense that the dynamics within the family have been perturbed. That's why it's very important for them to get access to a shelter, but we know that a large number of them will very rapidly, within three, six, or nine months, be able to get out of those temporary shelters—they are temporary—and be able to rent affordable accommodation, whether in an urban or rural centre.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We are saying there are several crises with refugees, but none in the western world. None of these are in Europe or North America as we speak. However, it is certainly a crisis for a country like Bangladesh, which over a period of six weeks received 700,000 people. At the peak of the Bangladeshi crisis, in the first week of September, Cox's Bazar, an impoverished part of the country where you have had the honour of going, received 50,000 people in one day.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will give an example that will, I hope—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There is recourse before the court on the cases of domestic violence that have been mentioned. I would like to point out as well that in Canada not all persons who are fleeing gang violence are recognized in the refugee definition, but are protected under section 67.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Decisions are being challenged in court, and there will be a final decision on whether an asylum seeker in the U.S. can make a claim based on their fleeing domestic violence or a criminal gang. In Canada, as well, we are looking at the issues of how people are being recognized as refugees when they flee criminal gangs, and a number of them are recognized in section 67 under other humanitarian considerations and not with a link to the refugee definition.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, and that would be very difficult to do because each of those programs is very different from one country to the other.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Some provide shelter, or work. It depends, for example, on when the work permit is given. In some European countries, pending your asylum claim being determined, you cannot work. Of course, that means the cost for the state to provide shelter, food, and everything is far higher there than it is in Canada, where people, after three weeks, are given a work permit.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we have anecdotal information from a number of partner organizations, in Quebec in particular, that indicates that within a reasonable period of time, up to 50% of them have found a job.