As a child of refugees, Nouri Garabet says he has always had sympathy for those who flee their homelands. The elder and chair of the three-person refugee committee at Chapel Place, Markham, Ont., was born in Iraq to parents who fled their native Armenia during the massacres of World War I.
“When I was young, my mother used to tell me terrible stories of what happened to my family,” he said, noting that his parents’ Christian faith likely contributed to their persecution. He lived in Iraq for 30 years before immigrating to Canada.
In August, the first family sponsored by Chapel Place arrived in Toronto, much to the relief and delight of Hanna Aziz, sister of Jwaher Aadsh. The Aadsh family fled their home near Mosul, a provincial capital in northern Iraq, for nearby Syria in December 2004.
Nazar Aadsh, Jwaher’s husband, had worked for the Alliance military forces and taught Sunday school; the employs branded him an American conspirator and a kafir, or one who does not recognize Allah. He was once assaulted by masked men in 2005, and in 2007 he was kidnapped on his way home from church. He was held in a windowless room until a brother provided US$10,000 as a ransom.
When a phone threat extended to his wife and his sons, Yoisef and Yoiel, days after his release, the family fled.
According to the United Nations, a wave of attacks against Christians and churches in Mosul left 20 dead and displaced more than 12,000 in 2009. It is unclear what groups have been behind the attacks. Under previous Iraqi governments, hundreds of thousands of Kurds and other minorities were forced from their homes and replaced with ethnic Arabs. Some claim the recent attacks are perpetrated by extremist Sunni Muslims, while others blame Kurdish political factions trying to push competing ethnic groups out of the regions immediately south of those controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
As an Arabic-speaking congregation, Chapel Place already had ties with Iraqi Christian refugees; members of the church and community had family members who fled to neighbouring nations, but who were seeking sponsorship to come to Canada.
According to the government’s policies, a potential sponsor must prove they can support the individual or family for one year.
Family members already in Canada raised enough money to satisfy the government’s one-year requirement and gave it to the church to be held as a term deposit. The church, with the necessary funds and the backing of the national church, applied as the sponsor.
The money given to the church is returned to the host family with interest in three installments — the first two in four-month increments and the remainder at the end of the year. This ensures money is always in reserve in case the host has difficulty supporting their extra family members.
A second family sponsored by the congregation has been accepted by the Canadian government but remains in Jordan awaiting a departure notice. Four more applications are in progress.
So far, the church has focused on those who already have willing family members to help them, said Garabet, but they hope to expand their scope.
“The church also wants to help refugees who have no one,” he said. “We want other churches and coalitions of churches to get involved, to learn the plight of Iraqi refugees.” He suggested Chapel Place is willing to help wherever it can be useful, with things with translation between Arabic and English.
For more information about refugee sponsorship, see presbyterian.ca/refugees — with files from Human Rights Watch
