Calgary's Eritrean community wants feds to open more refugee sponsorships

Many in Calgary's Eritrean community are desperate to bring relatives here as refugees, but say the number of people eligible to be sponsored each year is only a fraction of the number they hope to bring.

This year, they say they were only allowed to sponsor 21 refugees through the Eritrean Canadian Community Association of Calgary, said former president Mussie Yemane, despite there being thousands of hopefuls.

"It's sad," he said.

Yemane estimates there are more than 7,000 Eritrean-Calgarians, possibly the second largest population of Eritreans in Canada, behind Toronto.

He says nearly everyone has relatives who want to come here as refugees.

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Recently, the group gained three more sponsorship slots, an allocation Yemane said the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society offered up. The three refugee applicants would have to be Eritreans who are currently based in Sudan.

In order to try and give everyone in the community an equal chance, the association decided on a lottery-style draw on Friday. Community members put their name in a draw for the chance to sponsor a relative.

Yemane says he was shocked when 330 people showed up, despite their poor odds of being selected.

"I was surprised. I was expecting like 20 or 30 people who show up," he said.

"That shows you the demand."

Yemane's was among about 327 names not picked.

"People say, 'we try all the time, we can't get it', but it's fair," he said of the lottery system.

"It's open. We just... draw the numbers. That's as fair as we can get."

Jerusalem Abrahale put her name in the draw to sponsor a 20-year-old cousin, but also didn't get called. She says she knew the odds were bad but felt she needed to try.

"It feels a bit hopeless sometimes," she said.

"But there's always a hope, so you try, right? You try the chance of maybe you'll be one of the three lucky ones, but the chances are very slim."

Community members want the federal government to allow the association to sponsor more refugees to come to Calgary.

A spokesperson with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said the department continues to work as effectively as possible to resettle refugees given operational and security limitations.

"Interviewing applicants can be complicated by a lack of access, a lack of documentation, and difficulties in establishing family relationships," Western Region spokeswoman Nancy Chan said in a statement to CBC News on Monday.

"It is also important to remember that exactly how quickly applications can be processed depends on logistical challenges outside of IRCC's control, including not only the local security situation, but the speed at which security and medical examinations can be completed," she added.