Nihad Dahalan has done everything in her power to get her family out of Gaza.
In late 2023, the Palestinian-Canadian spent US$25,000 to acquire a permit for her sister Mariam and Mariam’s four children to leave Gaza for Egypt. She then applied for them to come to Canada under a temporary visa program for Gazan family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
The program permits a maximum of 5,000 applicants. But as of July 24, only 1,750 applicants had been approved, and just 864 Gazan refugees had arrived in Canada through the program, according to government figures.
Palestinian-Canadians who have applied for their family members to come to Canada under the program, as well as human rights groups such as Amnesty International, say the government has been woefully slow in processing applications or made it too difficult for Gazans to apply.
“The program demanded documents that were impossible to obtain, which tells us the program was designed to fail in the first place,” said David Matsinhe, director of policy, advocacy and research at Amnesty International.
But the government says Israel’s control of the borders in Gaza, and Canada’s lack of diplomatic presence in the enclave, are the main barriers to the program’s success.
“Canada continues to advocate for both the exit and safety of people still in Gaza, however, we do not ultimately decide who can leave,” an Aug. 1 government press release says. “Canada continues to process applications for extended family members.”
‘Enormous’ barriers
Today, Dahalan’s own family, as well as her sister’s, live in a single-family home in Ajax, Ont. But one person is conspicuously absent.
“[Mariam’s] husband is in Gaza City, in the north. They don’t have any food or supplies there,” said Dahalan. “It’s a very bad situation, and the kids here are always crying, saying: ‘We need Daddy!’.”
While Mariam and her four children were admitted under the temporary visa program, Ottawa’s application requirements have made it next to impossible for Miriam’s husband to apply, Dahalan says.
Applicants must provide documentation explaining the history of all their scars and injuries, show proof of family relationships, and demonstrate a detailed employment history, among other things.
“Enormous security and administrative barriers were built into this program, and that was complicated by the enormous destruction of infrastructure in Gaza,” said Matsinhe, of Amnesty International.
Once outside of Gaza, applicants are required to obtain biometric data to complete their application.
“Biometrics can only be completed after people leave Gaza, as IRCC has no presence [in Gaza],” Matthew Kuprovich, a spokesperson for Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada, told Canadian Affairs in a statement.
‘Staggering’ difference
Matsinhe says Canada should be able to influence the Israeli government to allow for the evacuation of Canadian citizens’ family members.
“Canada has an embassy in Israel and a representative in Ramallah. Israel gets a lot of benefits from Canada, including arms exports, so you would think that relationship would help Canada evacuate Palestinians in Gaza,” he said.
Mirvat Polo was one of many Palestinian-Canadians and activists who gathered in downtown Toronto in late July to demand the government expedite unprocessed applications to the visa program and simplify the application process.
“I came to Canada 11 years ago, but most of my family is still in Gaza — my sisters, my brothers, and all of their children,” Polo told Canadian Affairs at the protest. “Every day I fear to receive a text saying one, or many of them, were killed,” she said.
Polo says she first submitted a form expressing her interest in bringing family to Canada through the temporary visa program in February 2024, shortly after the program was announced in December 2023.
“I waited about six months for a call, and then the government sent me a code,” she said, referring to a unique reference code IRCC must issue to families for them to submit their applications. “On June 5th, I applied for all my family members, but I still haven’t heard anything.”
Ahmad Ismail is a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who lived in the Israeli city of Nazareth before moving to Canada in 2018. He, too, has been waiting to hear back from the Canadian government about his application for family members in Gaza.
“Our application was complete, even the biometric data,” he said. “But they can’t [come to Canada] because the border is closed. We send emails and make calls to [IRCC] all the time, but it’s been a long time since they responded,” he said.
He last heard from IRCC on March 26, 2024, when the ministry said it would call him with more information. But it never did, he says.
Kuprovich, the IRCC spokesperson, says Canada is one of the world’s top countries for accepting displaced civilians from Gaza. He said Canada will continue processing applications under this program on a “priority basis.”
“[Canada] is leading global efforts to support [Gazans] with financial assistance, interim federal health coverage and access to comprehensive settlement service once they arrive,” he said.
But Matsinhe says Canada could be doing far more to accept Gazans if the political will was there.
“Other countries like Italy and France have created much more successful, similar programs. Even Indonesia has managed to [evacuate refugees], and I suspect they have much less capability to do so,” he said.
Matsinhe contrasts the slow intake of Gazans under the temporary visa program with the efficient manner in which Ottawa admitted Ukrainian refugees following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Between March 17, 2022 and April 1, 2024, Canada received just under one million applications for the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program. It approved more than 990,000 of them, and admitted almost 300,000, according to IRCC data.
“The difference is staggering,” said Matshinhe.
“This tells you that when the Canadian government wants to admit people, it is able to mobilize its administrative machine to process applications and move people in record times.”
Amnesty International blasted the government for this disparity in a July report.
The government managed to move tens of thousands of Ukrainians to safety in mere weeks, the report says, while “Palestinians have been treated with suspicion and delays, through a program seemingly designed to fail.”
Perhaps one reason for the reluctance on the part of the Canadian government to facilitate the Palestinian emigration may be due to domestic concerns. Many Canadians feel for those in Gaza but there is also a growing concern for the increase in antisemitism here at home. Many Jews worldwide are affected by the policies in the Middle East. It would be foolish to ignore the hatred toward Jews that has been exacerbated by cruelty of Hamas and the response by the Israeli government.
Do I want gazans as neighbors? Absolutely not.
Any where in the world where gazans are there is unrest. Just what we need.
There is no equivalence between Ukrainians coming to Canada and Gazans. Ukrainians look to settle and to be productive. They bare NOT a SECURITY risk. Gazans on the other hand bring with them security risk- terrorism; Jew-hatred; cultural non-intrgartion. Look at almost all border and internal unrest in the world and which group is most involved? doesnt take much thinking. So why import high risk.