Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Now or Never

Thousands of Winnipeggers seek help in bringing refugee family members to Canada

Longtime refugee advocate Tom Denton has invited Winnipeggers to add names to waiting list and finds demand is 'unbelievable.'
CBC Radio ·

Meet a man who has spent 37 years helping refugees

8 years ago
Duration 0:51
Tom Denton has been helping refugees for 37 years. Recently he decided to do something he'd never done before.
Just how many Winnipeggers want help to bring in refugees?

Longtime refugee advocate Tom Denton says he now has proof the number is "unbelievable." Denton is executive director of sponsorship for Hospitality House Refugee Ministry. He's been helping refugees for 37 years. Every day, someone in Winnipeg asks him to help sponsor a family member who is a refugee.

"I've been spending probably upwards of an hour every day … explaining to people why I cannot sponsor their refugee relatives," Denton estimates.

Denton says requests are up since the federal government put a cap on the sponsoring of refugees in 2012.

"Some of the people, their stories are tragic. They break down and cry in the office." Denton says he's worn out from saying no, over and over again. In October, he decided to do something he'd never tried before.

Longtime refugee advocate Tom Denton flips through waiting list of 30,000 refugees who want to come to Winnipeg. (Iris Yudai)
"I decided instead of turning everybody down, I'm going to make a waiting list." Denton and his staff took names for six weeks. He says 2,500 people applied and submitted 30,000 refugee names to the list. Most are from African countries including Somalia and Eritrea.

"These are hard numbers," Denton says. "People have generally talked about the demand but we've not been able to quantify it any absolute terms. Now … I have a real number."

Denton suspects the demand isn't just in Winnipeg. "I think that number would be replicated right across Canada."

Munira Mohamed is one of the people who added names to Denton's waiting list. She fled Somalia ten years ago. Now she's living in Winnipeg and sending money to help her cousins. They have been living in a refugee camp in Kenya for years.

"Every morning they wake up and wish their life will change," says Mohamed. She knows the waiting list is far from a guarantee, but it's something. "Even if you get one or two, you have to really try. Then they come over and even help you with the other ones."

Tom Denton speaks to Now or Never host Trevor Dineen. (Iris Yudai)
Denton says the demand far outstrips his capacity to provide sponsorships. He says he'll be lucky to get thirty spots this year. By his math, it will take 1,000 years to process everyone who wants to come. "This is ridiculous."

Denton says he'll continue to lobby the government to let more refugees in. "I want to move this into a human rights or a civil rights issue … I think families should be allowed to be reunited."

More from this episode