By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, January 12: The Home Minister of the Tibetan government in exile (officially known as the Central Tibetan Administration) called on Shannon Fraser, Immigration Program Director at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi, on Sunday.
Home Minister Dolma Gyari, formerly the first women deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament in exile, congratulated Fraser on taking up her new position at the Canadian HIgh Commission in New Delhi by offering a khata, the Tibetan well-wishing scarf.
Dolma expressed her gratitude to the government of Canada for its humanitarian assistance to the Tibetan refugees and also briefed Fraser about the on-going Canada Re-settlement project which already has landed 300 Tibetans from the state of Arunachal Pradesh in various cities of Canada.
The Tibetan Resettlement Project was initiated after an appeal by the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his meeting with the then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2007.
The project seeks to immigrate 1000 Tibetans from the remote Tibetan settlements of Miao, Tezu, Tuting, Tenzin Gang, Bomdila and Tawang in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh to Canada.
The Canadian diplomat expressed her satisfaction over the progress of the resettlement project and assured her government’s assistance in the future as well.
In 1972, Canada established the Tibetan Refugee Program and resettled approximately 230 Tibetans in the country.
Canada has a long-standing tradition of facilitating immigration for various groups around the world by matching prospective immigrants to community sponsors in Canada through private sponsorships.
Dolma was accompanied to the Canadian High Commission by the Secretary of the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New Delhi, Tsewang Gyalpo Arya.
