Maha Gharib hasn’t seen her family since she left Syria for Calgary seven years ago.
Her parents and sisters survived the earthquake that hit the country last month, but their home was damaged.
“Engineers estimate it could collapse at any time, so you can’t imagine how scared they are all the time and worried. My mom has panic attacks,” Gharib said.
“It’s really hard for them and for my niece — she’s not able to sleep at night because of how scared she is.”
Gharib is doing what she can from Calgary, including volunteering at a fundraising event for earthquake survivors on Saturday night.
Her parents are desperate to get out Syria, but the Syrian passport is at bottom of the list in world passport rankings.
According to VisaGuide World Passport Index, the Syrian passport only allows for passage into nine countries visa-free.
“They were talking about going to Egypt, for example, but it’s really hard. You can’t imagine how hard it is, so if they are able to come here, that would be more than great,” Gharib said.
The federal government announced Saturday it will make it easier for temporary residents from Turkey and Syria to extend their stay in Canada and will prioritize the visa applications of people from these two countries.
More than 50,000 people were killed and millions were displaced after the 7.8-magnitude quake and several powerful aftershocks hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6.
Federal immigration minister Sean Fraser, said the government will allow people from Turkey and Syria who have a temporary status to visit family, study or work in Canada to apply for an extension and will waive the application fees for them.
“In particular, we are going to priority process applications for temporary residency for people who have been impacted — specifically family members of people who are in Canada today,” Fraser said.
“These refugees have already fled wars and now they were living somehow in very, very minimum conditions, and now all of a sudden everything is gone for them.”
Saima Jamal, the cofounder Calgary Immigrant Support Society, said refugees need to be somewhere where they feel safe and taken care of and Canada is that place.
She said when it comes to earthquake survivors, the Canadian government should be taking a similar approach as it did with Ukrainians fleeing the war.
“We need to do the same for the Syrians. We need to make the process easier but you also cannot expect a lot of them to be working here. There’s a lot of elderly people that are coming, so these are people that have no way to survive anymore. It’s very difficult for them, so you also need to make exceptions and when you do ask people to come here as a temporary resident that they have some support here waiting for them as well,” Jamal said.
“These Syrians right now that are in Turkey, they don’t have any homes. They have nothing,” Jamal said.
After over a decade of conflict, Syria remains the world’s largest refugee crisis. Millions of refugees have lost their livelihoods and with the earthquake, the desire to leave is even more urgent.
“They just want to seek a safer place. This is the only dream,” Gharib said.
“Coming to Canada — that would be like a miracle.”