Feds using ‘new strategy’ to help those impacted by Turkey, Syria earthquakes – National | 24CA News
Canada has introduced new measures to assist these affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
On Saturday, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser introduced at a press convention in Mississauga, Ont., that Turkish and Syrian short-term residents in Canada can apply to increase their standing with no cost, efficient March 29. They may also apply for open work permits that may enable them to remain in Canada for as much as three years.
Canada may even waive the necessity to have a passport or journey doc to be authorized for a everlasting resident visa, given a few of these affected might have misplaced the paperwork. Fraser additionally mentioned that the charges for short-term passports and emergency journey paperwork will probably be waived for these returning to Canada, in addition to for Canadian citizenship certificates and everlasting resident journey paperwork.
“Today we are introducing new measures that make it easier for Turkish and Syrian nationals to extend their stay in Canada and be with their families, while continuing to work and study in a safe environment,” Fraser mentioned in an announcement.
Canada has been processing everlasting and short-term residence purposes from these affected by the earthquakes on a precedence foundation. As of Feb. 8, near 16,000 purposes from Syria and Turkey have been in progress, with 1,700 of these (750 everlasting, 920 short-term residents) involving individuals from the impacted areas, in response to the federal government.
“For those who apply for a temporary residency visa, we will be able to treat their applications with priority processing,” Fraser mentioned on the press convention.
“(There are) special measures that we’re implementing, internal to our system, to provide guidance to our officers to facilitate the approval of their cases so they can come to Canada.”
Fraser mentioned the federal government has discovered from its efforts to simply accept individuals escaping Ukraine after the Russian invasion of their nation final 12 months. The authorities supplied short-term safety to giant numbers of individuals from Ukraine a lot sooner than it may by bizarre refugee resettlement packages, he mentioned.
“We’re using a new strategy to help facilitate the arrival of people who find themselves in those situations (who) ordinarily may not be approved to come to Canada,” he mentioned.
“The specific mechanism that we’re using involves the use of advanced analytics within IRCC system to identify people who have been impacted by the earthquake and to render a positive eligibility decision for a whole group of applicants at once.”
More than 50,000 have been killed and thousands and thousands displaced from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6 that hit the area, as properly from its highly effective aftershocks.
As of March 10, about 600 Syrian and 6,400 Turkish residents in Canada had short-term standing that’s set to run out inside six months, in response to the federal government.
As of Feb. 24, $50 million was introduced by the federal authorities in assist of the earthquake response.
— With recordsdata from the Canadian Press
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