As Londoners try to get family members out of Gaza, immigration minister responds to concerns
The geo-political situation is making security checks difficult, minister says
Some Londoners with family in Gaza say they're frustrated with the application process for a new special immigration program that could grant their relatives temporary residency in Canada amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Applicants are required to have up-to-date passports and results of biometric tests, such as fingerprints and photos for facial recognition. They must also show they will be supported by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident for a year.
"The instructions are very, very confusing," said Wesa Nofal, who has been weeding her way through the paperwork. "The language that has been used is also very confusing. I even asked for help from my friend who's a PhD holder and we went through it line-by-line to make sure we didn't actually make any mistake."
Meeting the requirements has been a complicated task as the situation in Gaza continues to devolve, said Nofal, who has been working to bring her nieces, nephews, mother-in-law, brother-in-law and his family to Canada since the war began.
The average cost for each application is around $850, she said, on top of another $1,000 for an authorization. Then there are the security questions, which ask "intrusive" questions about a person's injuries or scars, she said.
But those are necessary hoops people must jump through, said Marc Miller, Canada's immigration minister, in an interview with host Andrew Brown on CBC's London Morning.
"There are some geopolitical realities to the war that are unique, and one of them is the inability of Canadian officials to actually get into Gaza and do security checks, do the biometrics, and get people safely to Canada," Miller said. "We cannot take security for granted but at the same time we have to make sure that we're getting some people out of the humanitarian disaster and the war zone in Gaza."
The process is similar to when Canada was getting people out of Afghanistan as the Taliban took hold of that country, Miller said.
"Officials on the ground need to know who is exiting into Egypt and have sufficient assurances that there are not bad apples getting through," he said. "I cannot imagine what these people are going through, trying to figure out filling out forms in the face of a humanitarian disaster. It's the best we can do under the circumstances."
Reem Sultan is a Londoner who represented a group of Palestinian-Canadians that met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November to share families' stories.
After attempting to fill out applications for her aunts and uncles living in the besieged enclave, she said she's decided to hold off altogether to see how the program unfolds.
WATCH: What it's like to have family trapped in Gaza
"Where am I going to get all that information?" said Sultan. "For example, where they've worked since they're 16 years old, their supervisors that they've worked with, any disciplinary action that they've had, detailed questions like that."
It would be helpful, she said, if Ottawa were to hire bilingual agents to assist with the language barriers as well.
There is still a 1,000-person cap on those who will be processed, Miller said. "There's significant interest. I want to focus on getting people out. I've said quite publicly, we're willing to re-examine the cap once we see what the number is. We don't really have a sense of what the full number of people is in terms of who is eligible to come under the program."