Ottawa to allow up to 1K relatives of citizens to apply for escape from Gaza – National | 24CA News
The federal authorities says a most of 1,000 Palestinian kin of Canadian residents will have the ability to apply to flee the Gaza Strip with Canada’s assist, however the National Council of Canadian Muslims is asking for the cap to be eliminated.
The particular prolonged household program for folks in Gaza is ready to launch subsequent week, after Palestinian Canadians pleaded for months to get assist from the federal government to rescue their family members because the Israel-Hamas warfare continues.
The program would supply visas to a most of 1,000 Palestinians, which might enable them to take refuge in Canada for 3 years if their households are keen to financially help them throughout that point.
When Immigration Minister Marc Miller introduced the plan final month, he mentioned it wasn’t clear how many individuals would profit, however that it will probably be “in the hundreds.”
Per week later, the division launched the written coverage for this system.
It exhibits that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will shut this system to new requests after it receives and begins processing the primary 1,000 purposes, or after a 12 months has elapsed.
The council of Canadian Muslims, a nationwide advocacy group, says it has already been involved with greater than a thousand individuals who have reached out about getting their households out of Gaza.
“There should not be a cap,” mentioned Uthman Quick, the group’s director of communications.
The Immigration Department didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, however final month, Miller mentioned it stays very troublesome to safe protected passage out of the Palestinian territory.
Ottawa has no management over who can cross the tightly managed Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on any given day, and even getting Canadian residents out of the warfare zone has confirmed to be sluggish and troublesome.
Toronto immigration lawyer Yameena Ansari mentioned she believes the cap represents an enormous underestimate of the quantity of people that need assistance.
Ansari advocated for the coverage as a part of an advert hoc group of immigration attorneys known as the Gaza Family Reunification Project.
“Just between the lawyers in this group, we know more than 1,000 applicants,” mentioned Ansari, who known as the restrict “heinous.”
Gaza has been beneath close to fixed bombardment since Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing an estimated 1,200 folks in Israel and taking about 240 hostage.
Israel nearly instantly launched a retaliatory assault within the Hamas-controlled territory that has seen greater than 21,900 Palestinians killed, in response to native authorities.
Two-thirds of the Palestinian casualties are ladies and kids, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. Canadians with household within the area have described feeling terrified for family members who’re operating out of locations to take shelter.
Ansari mentioned she expects the variety of purposes will refill rapidly, creating what she known as a “battle royale” for a scarce variety of visas.
“What’s at stake is, and I want to put this really bluntly: is your family going to live or are they going to die?” Ansari mentioned.
She mentioned she took calls all by way of the vacations from frantic households hoping to arrange for the Jan. 9 launch of this system, and hoping their households will reside lengthy sufficient to get a visa.
Some of these conversations have been troublesome, Ansari mentioned. She has needed to clarify that not all members of the family will have the ability to depart. Families must resolve whether or not to depart some family members behind.
That is, if they will even get by way of the border.
“This piece of paper might be meaningless. You might not be able to leave this conflict,” Ansari mentioned.
That’s why the NCCM mentioned they’ve known as for a ceasefire to place an finish to the violence.
Most folks in Gaza don’t need to depart, Quick mentioned, and so they need to know that in the event that they do flee to Canada for refuge that they’ve the precise to return dwelling when the battle is over.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
