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Airbnb.org launches partnership to support Afghan refugees in Canada

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Key Takeaways

  • Airbnb.org will partner with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society to help support some of the 40,000 Afghan refugees the Canadian government has committed to welcome over the coming months.

Key Takeaways

  • Airbnb.org will partner with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society to help support some of the 40,000 Afghan refugees the Canadian government has committed to welcome over the coming months.

Earlier this year, Airbnb.org committed to provide temporary housing to 20,000 Afghan refugees worldwide. As thousands of Afghans continue to resettle in communities around the world, Airbnb.org announced today it is partnering with Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS) to support efforts across a national network of 34 resettlement agencies. 

Airbnb.org will provide funds to help support some of the 40,000 Afghan refugees the Canadian government has committed to welcome over the coming months, by offering free housing to resettlement agencies across the country through its partnership with CCIS. Founded in 1981, CCIS is one of the leading organizations providing settlement and integration services to immigrants and refugees in Canada.

“It is always heartwarming to see companies step up and contribute to our national Afghan refugee settlement efforts.  Thanks to Airbnb.org’s generous initiative, Afghan refugees arriving in Canada in the next few months will benefit from free temporary housing as they adjust to their new lives and integrate into their communities in Canada,” said The Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, P.C., M.P., Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

“Canadians have a long history of welcoming refugees from around the world. Airbnb.org is proud to build on this tradition by partnering with Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, civil society actors across the country, and generous hosts to help welcome Afghan refugees,” said Jennifer Bond, Airbnb.org Board Member, Founder and Managing Director of the University of Ottawa Refugee Hub and Chair of the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI). 

“We are grateful for Airbnb.org’s global leadership in this moment of crisis, which is providing invaluable support to our organization as we prepare to serve tens of thousands of Afghan refugees in the months ahead. Through this partnership, we will be able to meet one of the most urgent needs of arriving individuals and families and focus our staff on helping our clients build their new lives,” said Fariborz Birjandian, Chief Executive Officer at CCIS.

Over the coming weeks and months, Airbnb.org will work with CCIS and Hosts on Airbnb to connect arriving Afghan newcomers across the country to temporary housing. Since August, Airbnb.org has worked with partners to place more than 2,000 Afghan refugees into temporary housing in communities where they will resettle. 

In the past four years, Airbnb.org and Airbnb have connected approximately 25,000 refugees around the world to temporary housing. Airbnb and Airbnb.org have been working with Hosts across Canada to open their doors to refugees since 2017. Earlier this year, Airbnb.org announced the creation of the $25 million Refugee Fund, to further expand Airbnb.org’s support of refugees and asylum seekers worldwide.

Anyone interested in opening up their home to support arriving refugees in Canada can visit Airbnb.org/refugees to learn more. 
Read more about: Airbnb.org, City Portal

About Airbnb 

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over
4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

About Airbnb.org

Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc.’s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org’s charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform.

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