Syrian refugee sponsors face difficult choice

New Brunswickers who have waited seven months and longer to welcome and support Syrian refugeesare bracing for a difficult choice.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will soon present sponsors with the option of cancelling their original commitments to Syrianparents and children who have been delayed by medical and security screening.

Instead, sponsors will be offered a "replacement" family already cleared for travel by the federal government.

• Private sponsors given choice of swapping delayed Syrian refugees for others
• Apartment ready for Syrian refugee family since February still unused

"We're going to be offered an entirely different family," said Dr. Mike Ramey, whose Fredericton-area church group rented and furnished an apartment last winter for a mother, father, their three girls and two boys, who never did arrive.

Released apartment

By May, the group had to release the apartment but the volunteers did not abandon hope that the family would get through.

And just last month, the two sides were able to communicate.

We lined up a translator and actually got to make contact with them and let them know that we hadn't forgotten about them.- Mike Ramey, church group member

"We lined up a translator and actually got to make contact with them and let them know that we hadn't forgotten about them," said Ramey.

Now Ramey can't predict how his peers will handle the option of moving another family forward when it feels like giving up on those to whom they feel connected.

He anticipates that conversation will start Tuesday nightat a meeting of the steering committee that draws on parishioners from St. Theresa's Catholic Parish and St. John the Evangelist.

Discussing dilemma

Ramey says no offer hasbeen presented yet, but it's time to start wrapping their heads around the dilemma.

Sponsors who are offered a replacement case will have one week to accept.

"I can't imagine being placed in that position," said Melissa Hetherington, a member of the RiverCrossChurch in Saint John.

She knows three related Syrian families who made it to the city, while a fourth has been delayed.

Hetherington says she was able to see the mother two weeks ago on Skype and tried to overcome the language barrier by smiling to the woman and making welcoming gestures with her hands.

"My message to her was 'Come, come, come. We want you to come,'" she said to the woman in Jordan.

My message to her was 'Come, come, come. We want you to come.- Melissa Hetherington

Hetherington says the family was supposed to be moving into an apartment prepared last winter by sponsors at Grand Bay Baptist Church.

The church held onto the place for a few months but then let it go.

Much like Ramey's group, Hetherington says the sponsors did keeping hoping the situation would resolve.

"You've given your word that you're going to do this," she said.

The IRCC has explained to sponsorship groups that delays in processing families were in large part due to the fact that cases were made available to sponsors prior to the finalization of eligibility, medical, and security decisions.

And the reason those cases were made available before being finalized was to meet the demand from sponsors at the time and to have the families included in the initiative to resettle 25,000 Syrians by the end of February 2016.