Donate your points to help refugees get on a plane

There is a snowstorm the day Noorbano Anwari visits Montreal for the first time. In a café, she seems rather amused by the temperature and the snowflakes that waltz outside. Arriving in Ottawa a week ago, she took advantage of a few days to discover the Quebec metropolis before working. Noorbano, originally from Afghanistan, is a refugee in Canada. His request was processed from India.

She now works at a senior center as a personal support worker in Ottawa. It is thanks to the Miles4Migrants initiative, which allows travelers to donate their reward points to give away plane tickets to refugees, that she was able to leave India without having to pay for her trip.

“I was happy, excited, and excited, knowing that I was in a new country,” Noorbano says of her feelings when the plane landed in Ottawa.

“The situation in Afghanistan is very difficult for women and girls. My mom raised my sister and I alone, so you can imagine, three women together with no men... It was too difficult for us,” she says.

His mother therefore fled with her two daughters to India, where they obtained refugee status.

Noorbano, now 27, was working in the health field at the time and ended up obtaining a certificate as a social worker in India for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN agency that helps refugees. She also trained as a nurse during her nine-year stay in India, before getting what she described as incredible help.

“I was able to get a visa to come and work in Canada as a refugee”, thanks to the pilot project on the path to economic mobility. This federal program combines the obtaining of refugee status with direct placement in the area of expertise of the person concerned in order to meet needs in the country.

“Without the help [of Miles4Migrants], I would not have even dared to leave, given the amount to be paid,” says Noorbano, convinced. Imagine, you have a visa and permission to leave, but you can't afford to travel.”

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Making the bridge

Glaydon de Freitas worked as a human rights lawyer in Brazil and the United States. Executive director of Miles4Migrants, he shares with the organization the firm conviction that in addition to being a legal obligation for countries, the right to asylum must also be supported by citizens in general.

Managing the exit of refugees from the country where they are suffering persecution is a part neglected by states and international organizations, he believes.

“When we welcome new people into our communities, instead of shutting the door on our neighbours, I think we should put more pressure on the government to support those fleeing difficult situations,” he said. So the solution is never to deny human rights.”

He believes that new initiatives like Miles4Migrants need to be created to fill a void.

Since Miles4Migrants was founded in 2016, 617 people from 28 countries have arrived in Canada through the points program. It took 25 million miles, which is the sum of $585,000 that asylum seekers and refugees were able to save. Miles4Migrant works in collaboration with NGOs on the ground who choose the people who will benefit from this service.

In addition, 3,500 Ukrainian nationals came to Canada thanks to The Ukraine2Canada initiative, supported on the ground by Air Canada, the Canadian government, MOSAIC and the credit card company American Express.

In Canada, a refugee can get a loan from the Government of Canada of up to $15,000 for airline tickets, which they must begin to repay one month after arriving in the country.

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No transport, no more risks

From his office in Texas, Mr. de Freitas knows that the migration journey for asylum seekers and refugees can be complicated, dangerous, and even deadly.

“We are seeing people from South America crossing dangerous areas through Panama trying to reach safe places,” he explains.

“This is what we are also seeing in the Mediterranean, because people are going to take dangerous paths to escape persecution and are going to take that journey.”

In 2014, more than 26,000 migrants died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. If they could apply for asylum and be accepted as refugees from their country, knowing that a flight will be provided to them to flee, perhaps this kind of tragedy could be avoided.

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A story that begins between Italy and Pakistan

In 2016, Nick Ruiz, the founder of Miles4Migrants, studied for a doctorate in Italy. He became friends with several foreigners who were also studying in this country. One day he meets a Pakistani refugee in his church.

“He had received permission so that his family, who had remained in Pakistan, could come and join him after several years,” he explains.

“So his family could leave, but the refugee, because of the many obstacles he encountered during the resettlement, did not have five or six thousand euros to pay for the plane tickets for his children and his wife.” Mr. Ruiz does not have much money, but he does know that he does have several Miles to pay for a portion of a plane ticket. He then decides to ask friends to collect their rewards, and together they end up buying all the plane tickets.

“They managed to cover over $6,000 in miles. Enough to help his friend's family,” says Mr. de Freitas. The joy of meeting again at the airport then confirmed his new vocation.

“He wrote on social media that instead of using his rewards to get access to a Lounge privately, he had instead used them to contribute to reuniting a family. This post snowballed.”

Since then, more than 43,000 flights have been paid for by donations from people around the world who donate money or miles.

For Noorbano Anwari, who has a month before officially starting his new job, the flight offered by the organization allows him not to arrive in a new country with a debt.

“My employer gave me one month to regularize my situation, to have a bank account, an apartment. I can already prepare to raise money to help my mother and sister who stayed in India,” she said. Consolation following this separation, she has a cousin in Montreal that she can visit if she misses the family too much.

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Hard times for small organizations

Despite a unifying mission and generous contributions from the public and private companies over the past several years, times are difficult for Miles4Migrants, says Mr. de Freitas.

“We are a very small team of six employees, we don't even have an employee who is in charge of fundraising; everything that is given covers almost exclusively flights for refugees,” he says with a hint of despair in his voice. He specifies that he and his colleagues recommend teleworking to avoid additional administrative costs.

He estimates that annually, Mile4Migrants is still capable of providing 7,000 to 9,000 flights.

“I think another challenge is how some people feel about refugees. Maybe some businesses that would like to help us don't do so for fear of being associated with an organization that helps refugees with their plane tickets [as if it were a luxury].”

The Director General reports that in the United States, for example, a certain segment of the population believes that it would be better to help veterans or other categories of citizens. Knowing that there were 110 million displaced people in the world in mid-2023 and that 6 million of them were asylum seekers, a lasting solution had to be found for the safe reception and travel of these people.

The same perception exists in Canada. Mr de Freitas immediately referred to the debate around immigration and housing, stressing the comments that linked the presence of immigrants to the housing crisis. It calls for increased vigilance.

He adds, passionately, that “when we violate the fundamental rights of others, we also hurt our own.” “We are all linked”, he summarizes.

For her part, Noorbano is formal: being in Canada is an opportunity she will not miss. She wants to integrate quickly and have a real influence in her host city.

“When the body adapts to a different environment, you also need to be mentally prepared for that situation. I pray for a calm state of mind and I am learning a lot. I am still open to learning about this new culture here,” she concludes with a small smile.