Lawyers question Canada’s approach to reviewing visa applications for Gaza Strip residents with relatives in Canada after one of the applicants, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas. It is showing.
The Canadian Press obtained a redacted letter sent by a Canadian immigration officer to the applicant, asking if they “have ever provided medical care to an injured Hamas member.” If they refused, the letter asks them to explain how they were able to do so “without consequences.”
Kelly O’Connor, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, said she gasped when she saw the text. He said in an interview that medical workers who refuse to treat injured people in combat zones are committing a “serious breach of the Geneva Conventions.”
“It’s completely outrageous for a government to ask a question like this when you’re trying to promote someone breaking the Geneva Conventions during wartime, and that’s not what the Canadian Armed Forces represents,” O’Connor said. he said.
He added that visa applicants are already asked “very intrusive questions” during the process. “So you saw this letter? It really shocked me.”
Canada’s visa program has been mired in setbacks and controversy since it was launched on January 9th. The program is open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents who want to bring relatives from the Gaza Strip, where the war between Israel and Hamas has left even more dead. According to Gaza health officials, there are more than 35,000 Palestinians.
The war began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, inside Israel and abducted around 250 others.
Applicants to Canada’s Special Temporary Visa Program must complete several steps. First, relatives living in Canada must submit a “statutory declaration form” identifying the family members in the Gaza Strip for whom they are seeking visas, as well as extensive detailed information about each member, including descriptions of physical scars and marks, and a list of family members. It must be submitted. They have all the jobs they’ve held since they were 16 years old.
O’Connor said the questions “go far beyond what would be asked in a normal immigration application.”
The declaration will be inspected by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and a unique code will be sent to each family listed on the document. Those family members use the code to submit her second document for a temporary visa. They must then somehow get from Gaza to the Canadian Immigration Office in Cairo, Egypt, to complete the final vetting process.
More than 7,500 people filed statutory returns between January 9 and April 1, according to data obtained through Freedom of Information requests. As of April 29, 179 people had been issued temporary visas.
Canada has been unable to work with Egypt and Israel to get applicants across borders. Those granted visas have often made ends meet by paying thousands of dollars to private companies.
Mr. O’Connor represents three Canadians who filed for a total of 16 family members in the Gaza Strip, one of whom (a child) has since died. She said they are all still waiting for the codes needed to move on to the second stage of the process.
The letter sent to the health-care worker, whose name has been blacked out for fear of repercussions, was on letterhead from the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan, and contained information about Canadian Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. It is said to have been made by an anonymous immigration official at the department. It asks about applicants’ work history at two hospitals in Gaza before inquiring about the care provided to Hamas fighters.
Randall Cohn, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, said the questions in the letter are “clearly illegal and absolutely egregious.” He said in an interview that he had seen a second letter to doctors and nurses asking about the treatment of Hamas members and was aware of two more.
Cohn said people who received these letters and brought them to lawyers were afraid to do so because they feared they would be punished by Canadian immigration officials. He wonders how many others have received similar letters but were too scared to show them to anyone.
Cohn said he hoped the question was a mistake by an “overzealous” visa officer and the letter has since been corrected. In any case, “Canadians should know that our immigration system operates in such an intensive and chaotic manner that it allows for this type of discriminatory treatment, and it typically goes uncorrected and unpunished.” added.
The federal immigration agency said it was not possible to interview Minister Mark Miller. As part of Canada’s vetting process, visa applicants may be asked additional questions about their work history, travel history and online presence, spokesperson Jeffrey McDonald said in an emailed statement. said.
Citing privacy reasons, McDonald’s declined to comment on why he questioned the medical professionals who treated him.
Canada lists Hamas as a terrorist group and Canada has the right to screen visa applicants for possible security threats, says author of widely used textbook on Canadian immigration law. said Lorne Waldman, a Toronto-based lawyer.
“But these types of questions are completely unacceptable,” Waldman said in an interview. “If there was a shootout between gang members in Toronto, a doctor would not stop and ask if the person was a gang member before treating them.”
He also said Canada cannot ask visa applicants such questions solely for informational purposes.
Richard Kurland of the Immigration Security Lawyers Association, a group that seeks to ask the government hard questions about Hamas and terrorism, said he was refusing to ask questions for two reasons. The first is because it targets only Hamas and not other terrorist groups operating in Gaza, and the second is “problematic,” he wrote in an email.
“Even the most violent terrorists should receive treatment,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2024.
With files from Associated Press
