‘Our families are dying’: outrage as program fails to bring Palestinians to Canada

Eman al-Atbash, a 29-year-old financial analyst in Ontario, has already lost her brother, grandparents, aunt, and brother-in-law in Israel’s war on Gaza, which began in October.

Her brother Ahmad was shot by a sniper while her family was evacuating their neighborhood in al-Rimal. He bled out to death in al-Shifa hospital, where doctors could not save him because of shortage of resources and the Israeli army’s siege. Her diabetic grandmother, Moufideh, died of injuries and a lack of insulin. Her brother-in-law, Mohammad, was killed in a bombardment when he ventured out to find a signal to call his brother, Eman’s husband.

Related: Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza: ‘The ghosts of Gaza follow me everywhere’

“I’m scared of losing another person,” said Atbash, whose family has been displaced four times and is now sheltering in tents in Rafah. “Their situation is miserable. It is cold. My sisters have small children, they are all sick,” she said.

Initially, her parents had refused to flee their homes, but now five months into Israel’s assault on Gaza, they are clinging to the hope that Atbash might bring them to safety through a family reunification program announced by the Canadian government in December.

But so far, not a single person has successfully escaped from Gaza to Canada under the scheme.

When applications opened on 9 January, “anchor relatives” in Canada had to submit notarized letters, fill online forms about each member of their family in Gaza and wait for a code that would allow them to submit the actual visa applications.

The form included questions about scars on the bodies of the applicant’s family members, a complete history of their employment since age 16, a list of all addresses they’ve lived and all their social media handles.

Such detailed scrutiny is unreasonable because many applicants have been displaced and do not have access to documents and records, and their homes and belongings were destroyed, said Randall Cohn, an immigration lawyer.

986 applicants have so far received codes and have been able to submit their full forms. But even after meeting all the requirements, many of them, including Atbash, have still not received their codes.

Weeks after submitting the preliminary forms, Atbash and other applicants received a generic email saying their information was incomplete – but it did not specify which family member’s application was it was referring to.

Immigration lawyer Randall Cohn said that some of his clients also received letters asking for family members in Gaza to get their biometrics done at their nearest visa center, in Cairo. However, the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is closed, with brokers asking for thousands of dollars to secure safe crossing for Palestinians who are desperate to leave.

“I honestly believe that it’s a factor of incompetence, not malice,” Cohn said. “I think that they have a mostly automated, very standardized system that is famously run by an AI and that is not very nuanced or very customizable.”

“This is the banal violence of a system that cannot deal with the actual nuance or urgency of the situation,” he added.

Atbash called the immigration agency several times to check in about her application – and ask why it was marked as incomplete even though she had submitted all the requested documents. But officials she spoke to were unable to help.

Canada has opened its doors to many people fleeing war, generously granting Ukrainians tens of thousands of visas. “But us Gazans, our families are dying every day and every moment and we can’t bring them here,” said Atbash.

As of 4 March, only 12 people have been approved to come to Canada, according to the immigration department. But so far, not one has reached the country through this program.

At least 13 Palestinian Canadians have lost 39 direct family members who would have been eligible, according to Nasser Najjar, a community organizer who surveyed more than 900 people through WhatsApp groups.

Many Palestinian Canadians feel “scammed” by the program, said community organizer Omar Mansour.

“We’re left in limbo to the point where people actually are saying that this is a whole scam, just a PR thing so the government can look good,” Mansour said. “It’s like throwing a bone for a dog. It can’t get more dehumanizing than this.”

On 29 February 2024, minister of immigration Marc Miller said on national TV “We are all failing Gazans” and admitted that the program has not had much success so far.

The ministry of immigration has justified delays in processing by saying they are unable to ensure safe crossing from Gaza to Egypt, but critics say Canada needs to be more transparent about its efforts on the ground.

Related: ‘She stood in silence, remembering’: photographing Gaza under airstrikes

Meanwhile, the slow and confusing process is creating panic in the community.

Atbash, who is six months pregnant, has been so stressed that she hasn’t been sleeping, eating or drinking well for weeks. She says she was even taken to hospital several times due to dehydration, and the medical professionals who saw her expressed concern for the health of her baby.

“We are not merely statistics or casualties of war; we are humans, with hopes and dreams, with families torn by forces beyond our control,” Atbash wrote on a flyer she handed to protesters at a recent vigil in Toronto. “Every second wasted is a precious life lost.”