Montreal, Canada – Palestinian families continue the Canadian government for delays in the issuance of visas intended to allow them to escape the mortal war of Israel in Gaza and to receive temporary protection in Canada.
Deposited at the Federal Court of Canada this month, on behalf of 53 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip with family members in Canada, the trial alleys that the country’s special visa program was prey to ineffectiveness.
Hana Marku, a Toronto lawyer representing families, said that all of her clients had submitted a form expressing their interest in visas during the first month of launching the program in January 2024.
However, none received the unique reference codes necessary to take the next step in the process, which is the submission of the Canadian visa applications from their loved ones.
The prolonged delay has left their parents based on Gaza open to the “deadly and inhuman conditions” on Palestinian territory, where Israel has bombed cities, neighborhoods and refugee camps for 15 months, the trial indicates.
“There is no rhyme or reason in the way the codes are deployed, and the fact that there is no transparency here is – it is an emotional torture, frankly,” said Marku in Tel Aviv Tribune.
“It is an emotional torture for the members of the Canadian family who put in a financial company in the conviction that this would create the possibility of taking their loved ones from Gaza.”
Canada launched the Special Visa Gaza program on January 9, 2024, a few months in Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian coastal enclave.
The program has enabled Canadian and permanent residents to apply to bring members of the extended family of Gaza to the country in the middle of the war. If they are approved, the candidates selected would receive a temporary residence up to three years.
But from the start, families and immigration lawyers declared that the process was confusing and included invasive questions that went beyond what is generally necessary, including requests for information on scars or injuries that required medical care.
They also said that Canada did not explain why some Palestinian families received codes to submit their requests, while others did not do so.
A spokesperson for immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada (IRCC) – the Federal Immigration Department – told Tel Aviv Tribune that he was examining a “large volume” of first scene bids and that processing times varied according to each case.
On January 28, the government had accepted 4,873 Gaza visa requests in the processing, the ministry said.
On the same date, 1,093 people who left Gaza without any help from the Canadian authorities were approved in Canada. 645 people arrived in the country.
The program will end once 5,000 requests have reached the processing stage or during a final deadline of April 22.
“The Gaza movement remains extremely difficult due to factors outside of Canada control. This continues to be the main problem in the speed with which we can deal with the applications of the Gazans, “said IRCC spokesperson.
But Marku, Toronto’s lawyer, said that his customers did not ask for aid to leave Gaza or a positive decision on visa requests from their relatives; They just want the opportunity to be authorized to submit requests.
“They cannot continue in the next step in this process – they cannot even fill in request forms – without receiving unique reference codes,” she said.
“We simply ask for an order from the Federal Court to oblige the federal government to give these people unique reference codes. This is what we had to plead. »»
Asked about the trial, the IRCC told Tel Aviv Tribune that the government could not comment on specific cases due to confidentiality problems.
One of the Canada -based family members involved in the trial, which spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune on condition of anonymity due to a fear of reprisals, said the visa program seems to have been “designed to fail And not to evacuate people ”from Gaza.
“They are not serious about the process,” said the person about the Canadian government. “They have no structured system. It’s just a bad system. You have to understand things by yourself, it makes no sense. “”
Relatives they hoped to bring to Canada remain in Gaza, which has been decimated.
In total, 48,319 Palestinians were confirmed dead, although the government’s media office in Gaza said the total could reach 61,709, given the bodies that are not yet found under the rubble.
A trembling ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, implemented last month, provided a brief stay of generalized attacks, but the enclave is in ruins, and the Palestinians are faced with a disastrous humanitarian crisis, with food shortages and other basic supplies.
The parent in Canada said that looking at destruction from afar while struggling to access Canadian visas has ravaged mental ravages. “I never have … in all my life (I had to) live such a thing, the pressure like this,” they added.
Meanwhile, Marku said that lawyers “work against the stopwatch” to try to receive the request codes before the program closed in April.
The Canadian government has 30 days from the trial on February 6 to submit its response, and Marku said that his team hoped that the Federal Court will then accept its arguments on an accelerated basis.
“Leaving people in the limbo, I think, is almost worse than categorically refusing them,” Marku told Tel Aviv Tribune. “In this situation, it’s just cruel to do this to people.”
