Immigration Minister Marc Miller said he appeared on the verge of approving a plan to remove Canadian Palestinian relatives from the Gaza Strip before Israel invaded the town of Rafah.
“While our success has been limited, it’s certainly not for a lack of trying,” Miller told the House Immigration Committee on Monday.
“We will not give up on getting our families to safety.”
His comments came amid growing criticism of measures introduced several months ago aimed at moving Canadian relatives in conflict zones in the Gaza Strip and Sudan to safety.
Miller announced Monday that he would increase the number of applications being processed for people leaving Gaza through the program, but the department is not sure whether any Palestinians have actually arrived in Canada via this means.
WATCH | Immigration Minister Mark Miller discusses increasing application limits for Gaza Special Program
Immigration minister renews efforts to remove Palestinians with Canadian ties from Gaza
Immigration Minister Marc Miller on Monday provided an update on the number of Palestinians with family ties to Canada who have left Gaza through the Canadian government’s special arrangements program.
The Gaza program initially capped the number of applications that could be “accepted for processing” at 1,000 — meaning all paperwork had been completed before they could be biometrically processed in Egypt — but Miller said 2,903 applications had reached that stage as of May 24.
Miller is now expanding the number of applications to 5,000, with each application able to include multiple family members.
The ministry said it had issued temporary residence permits to 179 people through the Gaza program as of April 29, but it was unclear whether any had actually arrived in Canada.
The NDP accuses the government of bungling both the Gaza and Sudan programs and not learning from problems that emerged with resettling Afghans after the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021.
Relatives living in Canada said they were given conflicting information from Ottawa about the plan, which led some to miss out on opportunities to escape Rafah by other means.
According to a memo obtained through Freedom of Information, USCIS had anticipated a “large number” of applications from the start of the program, despite the 1,000-person cap.
The memorandum, signed by Miller in December, said limiting arrivals to a maximum of 1,000 would provide some certainty but that a huge number of applications were expected.
The memo states that according to the 2021 census, there are 45,905 Canadians of Palestinian ethnic or cultural origin.
Miller said the program, which launched in early January, required cooperation from the Israeli government agency Coordinating Operations in the Palestinian Territories (COGAT), which he claimed had not materialized for months.
“Most recently, up until the re-closure of the Rafah crossing on May 7, there had been some positive signals from the Israeli government that the plan had been approved and that processing through COGAT would be carried out in a timely manner,” Miller testified.
WATCH | PM Singh calls for greater efforts to evict Palestinians with Canadian ties from Gaza
PM Singh calls for greater efforts to evict Palestinians with Canadian ties from Gaza
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the situation in Rafah is horrific and the Liberal government needs to act to prevent genocide and get more Palestinians with ties to Canada out of Gaza.
Rafah is a border town with Egypt. It is the only crossing point allowed to leave Gaza, but only under strict rules imposed by both Israel and Egypt. It provides refuge for Palestinians fleeing Israeli air and military attacks in the northern Gaza Strip.
But about three weeks ago, Israel went ahead with its attack on Rafah, ignoring pleas from Canada, the United States and many other countries to stop the attack, which Israel says is a Hamas stronghold and crucial to ousting the militant group that killed 1,200 people in Israel last October.
Brutal images of children injured in airstrikes and fires burning in camps for displaced people drew global condemnation on Sunday. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has reported that 36,000 people have been killed in the war, including fighters.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly reiterated her call for a ceasefire on Monday.
“We are horrified by the attack that killed Palestinian civilians in Rafah,” she wrote on Platform X. “This level of human suffering must end.”
WATCH | Jolie says situation in Rafah is horrific, calls for immediate ceasefire
Jolie said the situation in Rafah was appalling and called for an immediate ceasefire.
During a question and answer session, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh questioned Foreign Minister Melanie Joly about the deadly airstrike in Rafah, who called the situation “heartbreaking” and “horrifying” and called for an immediate ceasefire.
While the Sudanese program is aimed at permanent residency, the Gaza program has a three-year cap, a limit that Miller said is driven primarily by sensitivities about the idea of Israel reoccupying Palestinian territory.
“There are very important geopolitical considerations, particularly some of the rhetoric around the Gaza withdrawal and the perception that Canada would be a part of it,” he testified. “That’s the main reason why we didn’t make it permanent.”
Civil war broke out in Sudan last spring, but Miller said his relatives probably won’t reach Canada until late fall at the earliest.
Families say officials are citing delays in fingerprinting and other biometric requirements, but Miller noted that the Sudan program is a more thorough process because it involves permanent residency.
Miller said Ottawa has accepted 3,250 applications under the Sudanese program, of which about 7,000 will arrive in Canada.
He said the number was based on the logistical capabilities of the ministry and its “security partners” but could be expanded.
