"When immigration lawyer Hana Marku opened her email weeks ago to a photo of an emaciated infant in the Gaza Strip, she said she felt helpless. The child is among about 50 Palestinians the Toronto-based lawyer is representing. She said each one was blocked without explanation from submitting applications under the temporary visa program the Canadian government created to help them flee the Israel-Hamas war."
"Marku said her clients in the Gaza Strip are facing death every day. One narrowly escaped being killed as he was bringing home flour after a bomb fell nearby, she said. Some have witnessed loved ones crushed by falling rubble. The situation has prompted her to request a ruling from Federal Court declaring the Immigration Department has unreasonably delayed the processing of her clients' applications, and that it acted unfairly by failing to explain the reason for the delays. She also wants the Federal Court to order the Immigration Department to reopen and consider her clients' applications. The Canadian government opened the temporary visa program in January of 2024. As part of the process, family members based in Canada were asked to submit documents then wait for a reference code that would allow them to finalize their applications. Program hit cap Marku said that despite all her clients applying within a month of the program opening, none were given the chance to complete their applications, because their codes never arrived. The Immigration Department never communicated with her clients to say why they had not received codes or to explain the status of their applications either, she says. Then this March, more than one year after the program opened, each of her clients received an email from the Canadian government stating that the program had reached its cap and had closed and that"
Hana Marku represents about 50 Palestinians in Gaza whose applications to a Canadian temporary visa program were blocked without explanation. An infant client appears severely malnourished and many clients face life-threatening conditions, bombings, and the loss of loved ones. Marku has sought a Federal Court ruling that the Immigration Department unreasonably delayed and unfairly failed to explain application processing, and she asks the court to order reopening and consideration of the applications. The program, opened January 2024, required Canadian-based family members to submit documents and await a reference code; codes never arrived and the government later said the program hit its cap and closed.
Read at www.cbc.ca
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