polvo-
they're coming from venezuela, argentina,
mexico, costa rica and brazil ....
back your bags. coming from the u.s.
you've got the best refugee claim of all <s>
-joser
Fleeing sunny Latin America, refugees flock to Whitehorse
By MARINA JIMÉNEZ
Friday, August 27, 2004 - Page A1
Mildred Orozco swears it was the Arctic poppies and salubrious mountain air that brought her to Whitehorse, not the prospect of dodging immigration authorities in the land of the midnight sun.
She is one of more than 50 refugee claimants from Latin America who have made the gruelling, four-day, $130 bus trip from Toronto to Whitehorse in recent weeks -- much to the surprise of the Immigration and Refugee Board, which receives so few claims in Yukon it doesn't even have a satellite office there.
"People in Canada think the Yukon is dark for six months of the year and that only aboriginals in their sleighs live here, but it is beautiful and the people are so nice," said Ms. Orozco, a 29-year-old Costa Rican who arrived last month with her husband and three children.
"We are hoping to find a better and more peaceful life here."
The family, from sunny San Jose, hasn't yet lived through a Yukon winter, when temperatures at times can drop to -50 C and darkness descends for 18 hours a day.
Still, Ms. Orozco is unfazed by the smoky haze from nearby forest fires that has hung like a blanket over the city for much of this week, obscuring mountain views.
The idea that the refugee claimants are trying to postpone their immigration hearing dates, as some observers have suggested, or trying to evade detection in this city of 23,000 strikes Ms. Orozco and her fellow claimants as ridiculous.
"We have an expression, Pequeno pueblo, infierno grande -- small town, big fire," she said in a telephone interview. "You could never hide in such a small place."
Dealing with a sudden influx of claimants in a city with virtually no settlement services has been difficult; officials are scrambling to help the new arrivals get housing, jobs, driver's licences, language classes, lawyers and translators. The number of refugee claimants in Whitehorse already exceeds the total number of immigrants to Yukon last year. "We have no past record of refugees," a government official said, "and this influx has certainly caused a lot of talk. We're kind of wondering why they chose to come to this far end of the country."
While some Latin Americans made their refugee claims in Toronto and then moved to Whitehorse, others headed straight north and are attempting to file asylum claims in a city that, until recently, had no immigration lawyers.
Sheri Hogeboom, who works in a legal-aid clinic set up to assist low-income Yukoners, has spent much of her summer dealing with more than a dozen refugee families from Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil. She is trying to transfer their claims from Toronto to Vancouver, a two-day bus ride from Whitehorse.
The Orozcos fled Costa Rica in March and initially made their refugee claims in Toronto (at the time, Costa Ricans did not need visas to enter the country). The couple became frustrated after failing to find work and affordable accommodation in Toronto, and read about Whitehorse on the Internet.
The bus trip was arduous, especially for the children, but the beautiful scenery and buffalo, moose and baby black bears they saw en route made up for the fact that they couldn't bathe for several days.
Whitehorse, with a 7-per-cent unemployment rate, relies mainly on tourism, mining and the public sector. While the cost of living can be higher, Ms. Orozco says she and her husband not only found cheap accommodation but also $18-an-hour jobs in construction. "In Toronto, I could only earn $8 an hour as a cleaner, and I didn't like the rhythm of life."
The family, which must return to Toronto next month for a hearing, knows that Costa Rican refugee claimants have a very low acceptance rate. But Ms. Orozco believes her case of domestic violence has merit.
"My ex-common-law partner beat me and attacked me in my home. We filed a police report but they did nothing because he is very influential," she said. "There is a lot of police corruption and mistreatment of women in Costa Rica, though the Canadian government doesn't think so."
Another claimant, Pekena Castro, a lawyer and Christian missionary from Bolivia, went to Whitehorse in search of employment and peace of mind. "I know they need professionals here," she said. "There are better opportunities because they have no population."
She fled her homeland two years ago, after she suffered political persecution, including several death threats. She came to Canada via the United States, and tried to settle in Toronto but found "so many doors were slammed in my face." In Whitehorse, she and her husband, who both speak some English, found jobs as cooks and hope to save money for courses to improve their language skills, and enroll in distance university classes.
Refugee claimants are free to move anywhere in Canada, but the onus is on them to attend their hearings. Melissa Anderson, IRB spokeswoman in Vancouver, said the board would consider flying to Whitehorse if it were cost-efficient. "Some people have suggested the claimants there are trying to fly under the radar, but with a group that large, all moving to a small town, they haven't flown under the radar at all," she said.
Other Latin Americans in Yukon are unsuccessful claimants awaiting risk assessments before they are removed, or have appealed their cases to the Federal Court of Canada.
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