'The governments let us down': Families of those in Gaza frustrated by lengthy approval process

Palestinian-Canadians pinned their hopes on the promise of safety and reunification after submitting applications three months ago to bring their families to Canada on a temporary visa.

However, many now find themselves left with uncertainty due to a lack of communication or progress from the federal government’s Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Among them is Ibrahim Manna, who checks his emails every day. He is praying this will be the week he learns that his family in Gaza have been accepted under a government program to come to Canada.

“They promised us that there is hope and we put some of that hope in our own family members,” said Manna. “I don’t even know what tell my family members right now.”

While waiting for a response, one of Manna’s uncle’s has already been killed.

“He was shot. He was 72-years-old and he had a lot of dreams and was hopeful and waiting to have a break from everything in Canada.”

Ibrahim Manna looks at a picture of his uncle (right) who died in Gaza. (Hafsa Arif/CTV Atlantic)

Manna said he wants Ottawa to act now before it is too late for others in his family.

“My fear right now is that I don’t want to lose any more of my family members. It’s really hard because I really want to at least unite with our families to bring them safety.”

In December, the federal government announced a plan to bring a thousand Palestinians, who have relatives in Canada, from the war-torn area.

Since then, the IRCC said it has received a large volume of web form submissions, which it is currently reviewing.

“As of March 4, 2024, we have 986 applications accepted into processing, meaning that applicants have used their unique reference code to submit a complete application.”

In a statement IRCC said it is doing it’s best to be flexible as it assesses the situation and that it has put forward names of people who passed the preliminary eligibility to the local authorities.

“As of March 11, 2024, 14 people who exited Gaza on their own had a temporary resident visa (TRV) applications in process were able to submit biometrics and complete their application, and have been approved to come to Canada. Data is preliminary and subject to change,” it said.

Immigration lawyer, Richard Kurland, believes Canada needs to move quicker while also ensuring security within its own border.

“Canada has to fly in from the European theatre and elsewhere from the Middle East a handful of intelligence experts to interview every individual before allowing them to board a plane to Canada,” explained Kurland.

“If people can’t leave the territory, do the Band-Aid solutions and meet at the actual physical border area where you’re neither in country A or country B and get your interview done there.”

Right now, Canada is doing a security checks through biometrics.

Australia, on the other hand, cancelled hundreds of visas for people fleeing Gaza under a similar program. While some of those visas have been reinstated, others are going through more thorough screening.

“Canada is on the cusp of politically committing one way or the other to this thing. Australia has to not keep it a secret [of] why they suddenly cancelled those guys’ visas. Something is out there in intelligence world that causing Australia in the last few days to cancel the Gazan visas destined to Australia, so there’s a lot of movement on the ground,” said Kurland.

With rallies and protests taking place across the country, Kurland said Canada is in a difficult position both politically and morally.

“We can’t reward a ‘Hamas government’ with getting away with murder, mayhem and destruction. On the other hand, we have a duty to try and attain peace. We have to get Gazans into Canada if they’re not security threats, but we can’t allow this problem to fester any longer.”

As Manna and countless others continue to wait for a response from the government, the toll of separation and uncertainty weighty heavy on their hearts.