Haitian refugees seek help with residency fees

Haitian refugees who came to Ottawa after January's devastating earthquake are struggling to afford the money it takes to apply for permanent resident status.

It costs $550 for an adult family member of a principal applicant to apply to become a permanent resident, and $150 for each dependent. It's a steep price for the immigrants, many of whom are still staying in a shelter in Ottawa's Lowertown area run by the Catholic Immigration Centre.

Gerard Etienne helped bring about 190 Haitians — including many teenagers and children — to Ottawa after the earthquake, and is now trying to raise enough money for them to stay.

"I'm not worried about the adults. I'm worried about the children," Etienne said.

"You cannot remove them from one situation of desperate needs to put them in another situation where the need is the same."

If refugee claimants don't apply within six months, they lose the privilege of being recognized as a refugee and have to apply to stay again under humanitarian grounds, a process Etienne said takes more time and is far less certain.

Jean Juste was already living in Ottawa when the quake struck, but his four children joined him in September after his wife was killed in the disaster. All five now live in a one-room apartment.

Juste works part-time as a cleaner and also relies on social assistance. With help, he's managed to file citizenship applications for his family, and said he hopes he can provide more in the future.

"I want to find a type of house that my children could live in ... like Canadians," Juste said, in French.

Carl Nicholson, the centre's executive director, said many of the Haitian families at the shelter are getting desperate.

"They know that this opportunity to apply for permanent resident [status] is a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Nicholson said.

"They do whatever it is they have to do to try to get that money."

Nicholson said he hopes to raise $25,000 to cover costs for the refugee claimants.