Partnership with Lamp Lifeboat Ladder to Resettle Refugee Survivors of Sexual Violence, Torture

Through a new partnership with global law firm Reed Smith, the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and other international organizations, the World Refugee & Migration Council will support resettling refugees in Canada who have suffered torture and/or sexual violence. 

The partnership announced that it received a C$500,000 grant from the Boston-based Shapiro Foundation and other support on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, June 26, 2020. Read more in our announcement.

The Lamp Lifeboat Ladder partnership combines the creativity of the private sector, with the regulatory capacity of the public sector and the social representation of civil society to protect 90 refugee families and help them rebuild their lives. World Refugee & Migration Council member Allan Rock is an active member of Lamp Lifeboat Ladder. Today there are more than 25 million refugees around the world. Less than 1% are ever resettled to safe countries. Most live in camps or shadow-communities and they are excluded from participating in our communities, our economies and our world. Among the Council’s main recommendations for addressing this issue is its call for shared responsibility, especially in responding to the humanitarian needs of people who are forcibly displaced.

This initiative comes at a critically important moment. Many states have slashed or ended funding for the UN and international humanitarian organizations. Such reductions have crippled programs aimed at protecting refugees. The initiative builds upon Canada’s long and exceptional history of refugee protection and creates an additional privately funded pathway for protecting refugees in a time of overwhelming need. 

The next step in the development of the project is leveraging private investments and donations from individuals, businesses and foundations to provide housing, rehabilitation care, psychosocial support and employment opportunities to torture survivors resettled in Canada. The team must raise enough funds to support 90 refugee survivors of torture, along with their families, in their quest for a new life. The cost of resettling these refugees and providing support for two years ranges from US$18,000-$35,000 (depending on family size and composition). The plan is to raise enough money to resettle all 90 refugees who have been identified for this program, along with their families.