After the federal government announced it is increasing the number of temporary visas for those fleeing Gaza with a Canadian connection, advocates say there remain serious questions about how that increase will be met if people are still struggling to get out.
Immigration and refugee lawyer Debbie Rachlis is working with dozens of families to bring Gazans to Canada. She says the program has been “a disaster from start to finish.”
“We were told that the government was sending more resources to the visa office in Cairo to help processing,” Rachlis said. “I haven’t seen anything speeding up on my end. I still have people sitting and waiting for several months now.”
The program, first announced in January, is meant to bring Canadians’ family members living in Gaza amid Israeli airstrikes to safety in Canada. Monday’s program change increases the number of temporary visas available from 1,000 to 5,000.
The program has faced criticism – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller even previously called it a “failure” – and Monday’s increased cap has not silenced those concerns.
Israa Alsaafin, a Palestinian Canadian, applied to the program back when it started in January to reunite with nine of her family members.
“Still waiting,” she said. “Processing time is unknown.”
Alsaafin’s brother died in Gaza in October 2023. The safety situation there prompted her to take alternatives to get her family to Egypt, putting her in debt.
“I paid $70,000 as a bribe to get them out and I was lucky, I consider myself lucky to have that chance,” Alsaafin said.
For those still stuck in Gaza, Miller said the increased cap won’t expedite arrivals.
“Canada does not control the situation on the ground, the exits from Rafah being a particular example of that, but we do our utmost given the circumstances,” Miller told a committee Monday.
Miller added that more than 5,000 people have started the application process, but only 41 have actually entered Canada through the program.
Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s special representative on combatting Islamophobia, said Palestinian Canadians feel “let down” by the federal government.
“They have really not felt that they are being treated in the same equitable manner that they should expect as any Canadians,” Elghawaby said.
— with files from Global’s Mackenzie Gray
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