FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto serves refugees and others at risk due to their immigration status. It welcomes anyone asking for advice, counsel and support regarding their refugee or immigration claim process. The Centre addresses systemic issues that newly arrived refugee claimants face in Canada including lack of resources, marginalization, and discrimination, and the FCJ Refugee Centre’s Anti-Human Trafficking Program has been at the forefront of the work done on human trafficking in Toronto and surrounding areas.
As asylum seekers arrive in Canada in record numbers, sleeping in shelters, churches and sometimes on the street, reception centres are a more humane approach. Loli Rico, FCJ Companion in Mission and former director of FCJ Refugee Centre, writes on Canadian magazine Maclean’s on the case for refugee reception centres. Read her piece here, starting with her experience as an asylum seeker and then founder and director with her husband Francisco Rico of the FCJ Refugee Centre.
Follow the FCJ Refugee Centre on facebook or Twitter @RefugeeCentre or visit their website. Or read more about them on our FCJ website.
July 30 is the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The 2019 FCJ General Chapter calls the FCJ sisters to “continue to widen our circle of love to embrace all people, especially those who experience exclusion, exploitation, and injustice. In particular, we offer our compassionate action to: migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; trafficked persons; the economically disadvantaged; vulnerable women and children“.
