Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't have a number per country, but we have identified 1.4 million refugees out of the 25 million who are in need, as a life-saving intervention, of a doable solution in a country like Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Canada will resettle 7,500 of them, plus an additional 1,000 under the provisions of the federal budget of February, which will target women in need of resettlement. And we have another 1,500 under the BVOR, which is a mixed program of government and private sponsorship support—so 10,000 in total.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of the processing at the border and at the irregular arrival points, I repeat the observation of UNHCR that things are processing in a very humane manner and diligently. I would also like to flag that the IRB, over the last 12 months, has done incredible work in creating efficiencies within the system and within the legal and policy frameworks that have increased efficiency by up to 50% with the same resources—that is, without using the resources that were allocated by the federal budget in February.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are two points. Definitely Canada is upholding the standards of the convention by allowing people arriving through irregular means to lodge a claim before the IRB. I must just say that, from over 18 months of observation, I will differ with a point that has been made. The people are not taking a risk.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members. Thank you for inviting us to come before this committee once again. Let me put things in the perspective of the UN refugee agency, which has a global mandate. Last year we saw 25 million refugees. It's an increase, compared to 2016, of close to three million refugees.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Compared with last year, it's a decrease of 43%. We have lost almost half of the space.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Under the Obama administration, there was a target of 110,000 resettlements. Last year, the actual number of arrivals was around 85,000 to 90,000. This year, under the Trump administration, the target is 45,000 or 50,000 resettlements. We have lost already 45,000 just from the U.S. allocated space.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Do you mean in terms of resettlement countries?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We are exploring, and Canada is helping us a lot in promoting the model of both the GAR and the privately sponsored refugees, to see which other countries will be able to join. We have some prospects in Latin America, especially in the southern part. We have interest from countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's not for UNHCR to respond to, because we are not involved in the settlement services upon arrival.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, and thank you for the reminder that indeed Canada had received in previous years a similar number asylum seekers. I will go one step further to remind all honourable members of this committee that we've done an analysis to see whether the increase in asylum seekers had a correlation with the number of resettled refugees.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, but there's also the more than three million internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the.... What I want to specify is that this is no more than any other victims from any other conflict or individualized persecution.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No. We are looking at the refugee population, which is 22 million. The 66 million is both refugees and internally displaced. If you look at the refugees, we have identified 1.2 million more, because they are rape victims, torture survivors, women at risk, children, who need to be resettled.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Do you mean specifically to Canada rather than another country?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The countries that have resettlement programs are very few. I think there are less than 20 countries in the world that are doing resettlement. They have similar capabilities and capacities in terms of the services they can provide, from psychosocial support to education and economic integration.