Syrians with family in Canada should not have to flee for their lives, but rather be admitted through a streamlined family unification process, say advocates.

Syrians with family in Canada should not have to flee for their lives, but rather be admitted through a streamlined family unification process, say advocates.
Photo Credit: Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo

Groups urge Canada to reunite Syrian families

Michline Tafnaki has been trying for several years to get her son, now 16, to join her in Canada. At 17 he will conscripted into the Syrian Army and will be embroiled in civil war.
Michline Tafnaki has been trying for several years to get her son, now 16, to join her in Canada. At 17 he will conscripted into the Syrian Army and will be embroiled in civil war. © Amnesty International Canada

Canada’s immigration department has a family reunification program that must be streamlined to accommodate Syrian refugees, say Amnesty International Canada and several other advocacy groups. As it now stands, Canadians who have family members in Syria can apply to bring them here, but the process can take two to three years.

‘There is no easy way’

“Over the last year…Amnesty International has had a number of phone calls from Syrians in Canada who have been asking about ways they can get their family members here to Canada,” says Gloria Nafziger, refugee coordinator for Amnesty International Canada. It’s been incredibly difficult to respond to them and say ‘I don’t have an answer for you. There’s no easy way.’”

Listen
Hanna Al-Khoulani is one of several Canadians of Syrian origin asking the Canadian government to make family reunification quicker.
Hanna Al-Khoulani is one of several Canadians of Syrian origin asking the Canadian government to make family reunification quicker. © Amnesty International Canada

Issue Temporary Residence Permits, urge groups

Canada should immediately issue Temporary Resident Permits for Syrians with family living in Canada, says Nafziger. This would enable them to come this country and live in safety while their permanent resident applications are processed from here. Canada has no diplomatic staff in Syria due to the conflict, but permits could be obtained in Lebanon or other arrangements could be made to make them available in Damascus, says Nafziger.

In addition, she says Canada could set up a hotline as it did during the Kosovo refugee crisis in the late 1990s. This would enable family members and sponsoring groups to provide information about refugees rather than waiting for Canadian government officials to collect it from abroad.

Canada has responded to crises in the past

“There are examples in the past of ways in which Canada has responded in a very proactive, creative, imaginative way to a crisis in the world, and there is no doubt this is a crisis,” she says. A news release notes, Canada airlifted 5,000 people from Kosovo. It took in 60,000 from Vietnam in 1979-80. In the current crisis, Canada has accepted 2,374 Syrian refugees.

‘Fix unnecessary delays’

Advocates have been urging the government to “fix unnecessary delays to the family reunification program and seize the program as an opportunity to quickly and effectively welcome more Syrian refugees fleeing the crisis.”

‘How can we live with ourselves’

“With the current crisis that we have and the attention that is focused on this issue, you have to hope and believe that the government’s going to look itself in the eye and say ‘we weren’t prepared to do anything, but how can we live with ourselves if we don’t’ and maybe find the political will to find a solution,” says Nafziger.

“I don’t know. I hope.”

Those involved in this initiative are Syrian Canadians, Amnesty International, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and the Canadian Council for Refugees, an umbrella group representing refugee and immigrant advocacy groups across the country.

Categories: Immigration & Refugees, International, Politics, Society
Tags: , , , ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.