Montreal, Canada – Abdallah Alhamadni is aware of the clock is ticking.
On daily basis, the 51-year-old Palestinian father of three checks to see whether or not his efforts to deliver his family in Gaza to security have superior.
However Alhamadni, a Canadian everlasting resident who lives in Milton, Ontario, says he’s caught in a harmful ready sport, as Israel continues to wage conflict on the Gaza Strip.
“We really feel paralysed, depressed, pissed off, crying,” he instructed Al Jazeera. “Generally we really feel we have to be robust to assist them as a result of we’re the one hope for them. It’s a variety of issues coming collectively, and we’re alone.”
Initially from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Alhamadni is making an attempt to deliver 61 family, together with 27 youngsters, to Canada by a brand new momentary visa programme for Palestinians affected by Israel’s army offensive.
Unveiled final month, the scheme permits Canadian residents and everlasting residents to use to deliver prolonged members of the family from Gaza to the nation, the place they are going to be granted a brief residency visa for as much as three years.
However the course of has prompted criticism from candidates and human rights advocates.
Alhamadni known as it complicated and time-consuming. Gaza stays underneath heavy Israeli hearth and faces common electrical energy and web outages, so Alhamadni has struggled to succeed in his family and acquire the data vital to finish the purposes.
The quantity of private particulars Palestinians are being requested to supply has additionally come underneath scrutiny, with Canadian immigration attorneys saying the method goes past what is usually required.
One type (PDF) asks folks to supply an in depth employment historical past going again to age 16, in addition to hyperlinks to social media accounts and a listing of all their in-laws. It additionally asks candidates to element any scars or accidents that required medical consideration, together with how they sustained them.
“They’re placing all [these] inconceivable situations on high of our heads,” stated Alhamadni, who instructed Al Jazeera that his family have been displaced a number of instances because the conflict in Gaza started. “I’m making an attempt [to do] no matter I can.”
The programme
Marc Miller, Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, introduced the opening of the momentary resident visa programme on January 9, three months after the conflict in Gaza started.
The transfer got here amid public requires the Canadian authorities to do extra to assist residents of the besieged enclave. At the least 25,900 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza because the begin of the conflict on October 7.
Prime United Nations officers have repeatedly known as for a ceasefire because the territory reels from the mass displacement of its residents, a crippled healthcare system, and a scarcity of water, meals and different humanitarian provides.
“The state of affairs on the bottom in Gaza is difficult and unstable,” Miller stated in a assertion saying the Canadian visa programme. “These new measures present a humanitarian pathway to security and acknowledge the significance of maintaining households collectively given the continuing disaster.”
However Ottawa confronted fast criticism when it revealed it solely deliberate to concern as much as 1,000 momentary visas to Palestinians from Gaza — a cap that rights advocates stated was too low. Miller later stated there was no strict restrict on the variety of purposes that might be accepted.
In an electronic mail to Al Jazeera, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) stated the programme “expires as soon as 1,000 purposes have been accepted into processing or one yr after the general public coverage comes into impact, whichever comes first”.
“IRCC continues to be versatile as we assess the state of affairs, together with the volumes of purposes acquired and the flexibility to facilitate eligible members of the family to go away Gaza and attain a secure third nation,” the spokesman stated.
As of January 16, Canada was processing 144 purposes, although none had been finalised, the spokesman added. The federal government additionally stated there isn’t a assure that candidates will be capable to depart Gaza, which is underneath a strict Israeli siege.
Egypt has additionally restricted departures by the Rafah crossing at Gaza’s southern border, as a part of a long-running blockade.
“If persons are in a position to depart Gaza, the safety evaluation can be accomplished within the third county the place IRCC will be capable to accumulate biometrics,” the IRCC spokesperson stated. “IRCC will then finalize the [temporary resident visa] software and render a choice on whether or not [the] particular person is accepted to return to Canada.”
Bureaucratic ‘cruelty’
In response to Naseem Mithoowani, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, the Canadian authorities has failed to supply enough data and clear communication in regards to the visa programme, fuelling confusion within the Palestinian group.
“Individuals are anxious in regards to the cap and whether or not that’s going to be expanded; how purposes are being assessed when it comes to their place within the queue; [and] why some folks getting additional forward than others regardless of making use of on the identical time,” Mithoowani instructed Al Jazeera.
“There’s a scarcity of transparency across the course of itself.”
She stated Palestinian Canadians have additionally expressed concern about a few of the programme necessities, together with having the ability to present monetary assist for his or her family from Gaza. In addition they have requested who will see the data supplied within the purposes and whether or not will probably be shared with different international locations.
“The Palestinian group has misplaced a variety of belief in our authorities, and in order that’s a part of, I feel, the elevated anxiousness ranges or the elevated want for communication on this specific case,” Mithoowani stated.
Yameena Ansari, an immigration and refugee lawyer in Calgary, additionally stated that, whereas the programme initially supplied a “ray of hope” for a lot of Palestinians in Canada, “their hopes had been rapidly dashed” once they understood its restricted scope and necessities.
“We have now been knowledgeable that these very invasive questions which might be being requested are coming from Canada. They’re not coming from Israel or Egypt,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
Safety checks are an peculiar a part of the immigration course of, Ansari defined. However “the concept of throwing that many varieties at people who find themselves making an attempt to flee a disaster” is unfathomable.
“One thing that’s by no means misplaced on me … is the cruelty of varieties,” Ansari stated. “We will be merciless to folks in bureaucratic, administrative methods.”
She additionally identified that what could seem like a small barrier to making use of could possibly be insurmountable for somebody grappling with violence and displacement.
Minister defends plan
When requested in regards to the outcry over the visa software’s questions, the IRCC spokesman instructed Al Jazeera that Canada is using a “multi-stage safety screening strategy” to the Gaza visa programme.
“That is a part of a regular follow in disaster response conditions the place IRCC doesn’t have a presence on the bottom to provoke preliminary screening and assortment of biometrics, as we did with Afghanistan,” the spokesman stated.
“The extra background data established within the type permits us to gather enhanced biographic data to start conducting safety screening whereas the applicant continues to be in Gaza.”
Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, additionally has pointed to safety issues to justify the questions. “These are particulars that we’d like. We have no idea who these persons are; they don’t seem to be Canadians, they don’t seem to be everlasting residents,” he instructed CBC final week.
“Anybody that has any expertise immigrating to Canada is aware of that there are a variety of intrusive questions, and coming to Canada — to be fairly frank — just isn’t a proper. I feel we do, however, have an obligation on this humanitarian disaster to do one thing,” Miller stated.
“Quite a lot of sympathy for the folks that need to undergo this — I can’t think about the state of affairs they’re in. However we do want assurances about who we’re getting out, and people particulars I do concede typically will be intrusive.”
‘Absurd, unconscionable’
Nonetheless, Julia Sande, a human rights legislation and coverage campaigner at Amnesty Worldwide Canada, drew a distinction between Canada’s response to Israel’s conflict in Gaza and its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Simply weeks after the conflict in Ukraine started in 2022, Ottawa launched a particular immigration pathway to permit Ukrainians and their fast members of the family — together with these with none ties to Canada — to hunt security within the nation.
There was no cap on the variety of candidates. Some charges and different procedures had been waived, and greater than 210,000 Ukrainians have since arrived in Canada by the scheme, in line with authorities figures.
“The programme for Ukrainians fleeing was one thing, I suppose, uncommon if you examine it to Canada’s programmes traditionally, however it was fantastic,” Sande stated. “It confirmed that Canada is greater than able to opening its arms and welcoming folks fleeing harmful conditions.”
But within the case of Gaza, Sande identified that the Canadian authorities has erected further boundaries for Palestinians “realizing that they’re fleeing abominable ranges of struggling”.
“On what foundation are we treating civilians in Gaza otherwise? What assumptions are being made about them?” Sande requested. The method, she stated, raises issues about racism and the prospect that “Gazans are being painted as a safety risk”.
“The requirement to clarify scars if you’re a inhabitants that’s been subjected to relentless bombardment, which Canada itself could also be contributing to by its arms exports to Israel — it’s absurd, it’s unconscionable,” she stated.
For Alhamadni, the wait drags on. His household’s visa requests stay within the early levels of the appliance course of, and Alhamadni continues to be consumed with worry that the visas could also be issued too late, in the event that they’re issued in any respect.
“My household is the [whole] world. My household is the whole lot for me,” he stated. “I can’t watch for a minute. In a minute, one thing will occur. One bomb will come.”
But regardless of the hurdles, Alhamadni — who’s elevating cash to assist pay for his family’ visa purposes and their journeys to Canada — burdened that he has not misplaced hope.
“I imagine sooner or later that we’ll have our freedom,” he instructed Al Jazeera. “Someday the sunshine will come. Someday we’ll see a greater future.”