Scheduled Tribes. Johns – A Toronto Immigration Advocate says that the family members of the Canadian people are dying in Gaza as the Federal Immigration Department has drugs the heels approved the visa through a special program launched in 2024.
Debbie Rachlis said Canada should speed up the approval process for visas of temporary special measures, it is presenting members of Palestinian Canadian families who are trying to flee violence in Gaza.
The Rachlis represents dozens of applicants for the program and said that he is involved with “at least five cases” in which people have died waiting for the word on their visas. He advocated the special measure program as a member of the Gaza family reunion project.
“We all know about many, many situations, where those who were waiting for the visa to arrive, have died in Canada and died,” Rachalis said in an interview recently. It includes people who have died of starvation, or bomb blasts, and those who were killed during the lining to get ration, said.
“They are all stopped and terrible deaths.”
Canada opened a multi-step program offering visas of temporary residents for members of Canadian families trapped in Gaza on January 9, 2024. It was closed on 26 March, when the 5,000 visa applications were accepted for processing for the program of applications.
A visa less than 1,200 was provided till 21 June, Jeffrey McDonald, a spokesman from Immigration, refugee and citizenship Canada. This visa is less than a quarter of Canada, said it would hand over.
McDonald said in an email, eight hundred and forty people came to Canada from Gaza.
The visa program requires applicants to submit biometric information-which include fingerprints and photos-in-purses were collected in an IRCC office. There is no such office in Gaza. Canadian press has spoken to several Palestinian Canadian people who have paid thousands of dollars to their family members in Gaza to pay private agents to pass the border in Cairo, where there is a Canadian immigration office to collect biometric data. Rafah Seema between Gaza and Egypt has been closed since May 2024.
“The primary challenge remains the ability to get out of Gaza for the people,” McDonald said. “Movement out of Gaza is extremely challenging and may not be possible at this time, as countries and other actors have set their entry and exit requirements.”
He said, “We work closely with local authorities – at every level – to get out of people in Gaza and advocate their safety,” he said.
Rachalis said other western countries have abandoned the requirement of biometrics. She wonders why Canada will not do this, especially in Gaza, the situation worsens for Palestinians.
Food experts have warned for months of famine risk in Gaza, where Israel has banned assistance as it says that Hamas shuts off goods to help raise his rule without providing evidence for that claim. In recent times, images emanating from Gaza have provoked the global criticism of Israel, including close partners who have called for the end of the war and the human catastrophe has given birth to it.
Last week, Prime Minister Mark Karney condemned the Israeli government for “the Gaza’s failure to stop the rapid deteriorating human disaster and criticized the humanitarian aid in Gaza as” violation of international law “.
On Sunday, the Israeli army began a daily 10-hour stop in fighting in three areas of Gaza, “enhancing the scale of humanitarian aid entering the area”.
Health officials in Gaza said that at least 37 Palestinians were killed in separate strikes in late Saturday, in which 22 people were seeking help.
Cairo’s position is also uncertain for the people waiting for the visa, Rachlis said. He has many customers who managed to go to Cairo and meet the need for biometrics. He said that he has been waiting for a year or more on his visa application status.
He said that he has no medical care in Egypt and his children cannot go to school. They are largely away from donations in Canada and funds of their families in Canada.
“We need to accelerate processing for those in Egypt,” she said, saying that she considers a very delay in the visa program from the applicants, saying that she considers the “intense investigation” applicants. Applicants are asked about their social media accounts, scars and other marks on their bodies, information about all the information they belong to, including the marriage – and to supply each passport done by them.
Last year, the Canadian press received a letter sent by an applicant to an applicant by a Canadian Immigration Officer, asking if he had “ever provided medical care to the members of the injured Hamas”. This is a violation of the Geneva Convention for medical workers to refuse to take care of someone injured in the war zone.
Rachlis said that families need quick information about their applications so that they can arrange and get security.
“Families need answers,” he said. “They need answers about what happened to this program and why does it feel that it has been set to fail.”
This report of Canadian Press was first published on 28 July 2025.
– With files from Associated Press
All smell, Canadian press
