Canada faces lawsuit over delays in Gaza visa programme

A Palestinian family is suing the Canadian government over delays in issuing visas that would have allowed them to escape Israel's deadly war in Gaza and seek temporary protection in Canada. The lawsuit underscores the pressure the Canadian government faces to expedite the processing of these applications.

The lawsuit, filed this month in the Federal Court of Canada, represents 53 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who have family members in Canada. The lawsuit claims that the country's special visa program is plagued by inefficiencies. Hana Marku, a Toronto lawyer representing the families, said all of her clients submitted expressions of interest forms in the first month after the program launched in January 2024. However, none have received the unique reference code required to enter the next stage of the process, which is to submit their relatives' Canadian visa applications.

The lawsuit states that the long delays have subjected their relatives in Gaza to "life-threatening and inhumane conditions," as Israel has been bombing cities, communities, and refugee camps in the Palestinian territory for 15 months. Marku told Al Jazeera: "There is no rhyme or reason to how the codes are being rolled out, and there is no transparency here, and frankly, it is emotional torture." She added that it is also emotional torture for the Canadian relatives who believed this would allow their loved ones to leave Gaza, as they made financial commitments.

Canada launched the special Gaza visa program on January 9, 2024, months after Israel's attacks on the coastal Palestinian enclave began. The program allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents to apply to bring extended family members from Gaza to the country in response to the war. If approved, successful applicants will receive temporary residency for up to three years. However, from the outset, families and immigration lawyers said the process was confusing and contained intrusive questions beyond what is normally required, including asking about any scars or injuries requiring medical care. They also said that Canada has not explained why some Palestinian families received codes to submit applications while others did not.

A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told Al Jazeera that they are reviewing a "high volume" of first-stage applications and that processing times vary on a case-by-case basis. As of January 28, the government had accepted 4,873 Gaza visa applications into the processing stage. As of the same date, 1,093 people who left Gaza without any assistance from Canadian authorities have been approved to come to Canada, with 645 having already arrived in the country. The program will close when 5,000 applications reach the processing stage or on the final deadline of April 22. "Exiting Gaza remains extremely challenging due to factors outside of Canada’s control. This remains the primary issue impacting how quickly we are able to process applications from Gazans," the IRCC spokesperson said.

However, Toronto lawyer Marku said her clients are not asking for help leaving Gaza or for a positive decision on their relatives' visa requests; they simply want the opportunity to be allowed to submit an application. "Without getting the unique reference code, they can't proceed to the next step in this process, they can't even fill out the application," she said. She added: "We are simply asking the Federal Court to order the federal government to provide these people with the unique reference code. That is why we have had to resort to litigation." When asked about the lawsuit, IRCC told Al Jazeera that the government could not comment on specific cases due to privacy concerns.

One family member living in Canada involved in the lawsuit, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told Al Jazeera that the visa program seemed "designed to fail, not to evacuate people" from Gaza. Speaking of the Canadian government, the person said: "They are not serious about this process. They don't have a structured system. It's just a bad system. You have to figure things out yourself, and it doesn't make any sense." The relatives they hope to bring to Canada remain in Gaza, which has been devastated. A total of 48,319 Palestinian deaths have been confirmed, but the Gaza government media office says the total could be as high as 61,709, given the bodies yet to be found under the rubble.

A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas implemented last month temporarily eased the widespread bombing, but the enclave has been left in ruins, and Palestinians face a dire humanitarian crisis with shortages of food and other essential supplies. The relative in Canada said that watching the devastation from afar while struggling to obtain Canadian visas has been mentally draining. They added: "I've never experienced something like this in my life, this kind of stress." Meanwhile, Marku said that lawyers are "racing against the clock" to receive application codes before the program closes in April. The Canadian government has 30 days (from when the lawsuit was filed on February 6) to file its response, and Marku said her team hopes the Federal Court will then agree with their argument to hear the case on an expedited basis.

Marku told Al Jazeera: "I think leaving people in limbo is almost worse than just outright rejecting them. In this situation, it's just too cruel to do that to people." The lawyer's view underscores the urgency of the current situation and the calls for action from the Canadian government.