- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- Dealing with a sudden influx of refugee 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.
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- "We have no past record of refugees at all,"
a Yukon 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.
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- 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 comparatively short two-day bus ride from Whitehorse.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- 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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- Refugee advocates suggest the movement to what Yukoners
like to think of as the "middle north" (as opposed to the High
Arctic) began after an Argentine couple visited Whitehorse and spread the
word about the many benefits of the city along the Yukon River. "I
have had calls from at least 10 people who told me that the farther north
they moved, the better their opportunities and chances to stay in Canada
would be," said Francisco Rico, co-founder of the Hamilton House Refugee
Project in Toronto, who worries their optimism may fade with the light.
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