Montreal, Canada – Palestinian families sue the Canadian government for delay in Visa issuing He intended to allow them to avoid the deadly war of Israel in Gaza and obtained temporary protection in Canada.
Submitted at the Federal Court of Canada this month, on behalf of the 53 Palestinians in the Gaza Gaza belt with family members in Canada, the lawsuit claims that a special visual program in the country is congested by inefficiency.
Hana Mark, a lawyer in Toronto who represents the family, said that all her clients filed a pattern that expressed interest in visas in the first month of launching a scheme in January 2024.
However, none received the unique reference codes needed to move to the next phase of the procedure, which is to submit the Canadian visas of their relatives.
A long delay left relatives with headquarters in Gaza open to “dangerous life and inhumane conditions” in Palestinian territory, where Israel bombed cities, fourth and refugee camps for 15 months, according to the lawsuit.
“There is no rhyme or reason how the codes are introduced, and the fact that there is no transparency here – this is, honest, emotional torture,” Mark told Al Jazeera.
“It’s an emotional torture for Members of the Canadian family who have invested a financial venture into the belief that this will create a chance to get their loved ones out of Gaza. “
On January 9, 2024, Canada launched a special Vis Gaza program, for several months in the attacks of Israel on the coastal Palestinian enclave.
The scheme enabled Canadian citizens and permanent residents to apply to bring extended family members from Gaza to the country in the middle War. If approved, successful applicants would receive a temporary stay for up to three years.
But from the beginning, family and immigration lawyers said the procedure was confusing and Invasive questions included This has transcended what is usually needed, including inquiries about scars or injuries that have required medical attention.
They also said that Canada did not explain why some Palestinian families were getting codexes to submit their applications, while others were not.
A spokesman for the immigration, refugees and citizenship of Canada (IRCC)-the Passed Immigration Department-said Al Jazeera to review the “great volume” of the application in the first phase and that the processing time differs depending on each case.
Since January 28, the Government has accepted 4,873 Visa requests in Gaza in processing, the department said.
By the same date, 1,093 people who came out of Gaza without any help of Canadian authorities were approved to come to Canada. 645 people arrived in the country.
The program will be closed after 5000 applications reaches the processing phase or after the final date of the reduction of April 22.
“Movement from Gaza remains extremely challenging because of the factor outside Canadian control. This is still the main question in how quickly we can process applications from Gazan, “said IRCC spokesman.
But Mark, a lawyer in Toronto, said her clients are not seeking help in leaving Gaza or for a positive decision on the visas of their relatives; They just want the opportunity to allow them to submit applications.
“I can’t continue until the next step in this process – I can’t even fill out the application forms – without giving unique reference codes,” she said.
“We just ask the Federal Court to force the federal government to make these people unique reference codes. We had to mate that.”
Asked about the lawsuit, IRCC said Al Jazeera that the Government could not comment on certain cases because of privacy care.
One of the plaintiffs based in Canada in a lawsuit, who spoke with Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said that the visa scheme “was thought to be succeeded rather than evacuating people” from Gaza.
“They are not serious about the procedure,” the person told the Canadian government. “They don’t have a structured system. It’s just a bad system. You have to think of things yourself, that doesn’t make sense.”
Relatives that the plaintiff hoped to bring to Canada remain in Gaza, which is decimated.
A total of 48,319 Palestinians have confirmed dead, although the Government’s Gaza’s Government said that the total amount is as many as 61,709, given the bodies that are yet to be found under the ruins.
AND trembling truce Between Israel and Hamas, an implemented last month, he gave a brief return from broad bombings, but the enclave is in ruins, and Palestinians face a terrible humanitarian crisis, a lack of food and other basic stocks.
The prosecutor said that the observation of the destruction of afar as he fought for access to Canadian visas took a mental tribute. “Never … in all of your life [had] To experience such a thing, such pressure, “they added.
In the meantime, Mark said that lawyers “work against the watch” to try to receive appliances before the program closed in April.
The Canadian government has 30 days since the lawsuit was filed on February 6 to file its response, and she told Mark that her team hoped that the Federal Court would then agree to their arguments on an accelerated basis.
“I think leaving people to the limb is almost worse than rejecting them,” Mark told Al Jazeera. “In this situation, it’s only cruel to do it to people.”
