Of the 1,000 visas to be issued to people from Gaza to enter Canada, a total of 986 have applied so far, and the majority (501) are men and boys, Blacklock’s Reporter reported. So far only 14 Gazans have left the region due to Israeli security checks.Immigration Minister Marc Miller earlier acknowledged it was up to Israeli authorities to conduct mandatory security checks in the war zone. “The Israelis have their say. They will screen people and decide whether they leave or don’t leave,” Miller said December 21.Miller has already proposed to raise the current cap of 1,000 permits to an unspecified number, following an outcry from the pro-Palestine crowd that 1,000 wasn’t enough. Cabinet tabled an Inquiry Of Ministry in the House of Commons, noting “the Department of Immigration has not refused any applications.”“The Department of Immigration cannot finalize applications until clients have exited Gaza,” MPs added. The figures were disclosed at the request of Conservative MP Tom Kmiec who asked, “With regard to temporary special measures for extended family in Gaza due to the Israel-Hamas war, how many applications have been accepted?”“We have only been able to see 14 people come out of Gaza into Egypt since the inception of the program,” Miller told reporters March 20.“I think there’s a tension between publicly supporting individual efforts to have people extract themselves, sometimes with dubious actors and bribing people, including perhaps even criminal elements, to save their own lives. That can’t be an official policy of the Government of Canada.”Miller last December 21 said he would waive immigration rules to grant permits to a limited number of Gazans to enter Canada. “We are thinking in the hundreds,” Miller said at the time. The number was later expanded to a thousand cousins, in-laws and other distant relatives of Canadians or permanent residents eligible for special visas.“This is a program that we knew from the get-go could be a failure,” Miller said last Wednesday. “Up to now it is a failure and it’s something I think we need to realize. This is Canada’s effort to get people out. We will obviously lift the cap. The new number is not something we have figured out yet. We have a sense of what that is but are not prepared to speculate on what that new number is.”Depite his remarks in December that Israel “has their say,” Miller on February 29 blamed Israel for conducting what he called “the largest hostage taking in the world” in Gaza. “We are all failing Gazans at this point,” he said.“I think that is something we need to realize, it’s probably the largest hostage taking right now in the world. People in and around Rafah are very exposed to death, to starvation, to bombardment.”
Of the 1,000 visas to be issued to people from Gaza to enter Canada, a total of 986 have applied so far, and the majority (501) are men and boys, Blacklock’s Reporter reported. So far only 14 Gazans have left the region due to Israeli security checks.Immigration Minister Marc Miller earlier acknowledged it was up to Israeli authorities to conduct mandatory security checks in the war zone. “The Israelis have their say. They will screen people and decide whether they leave or don’t leave,” Miller said December 21.Miller has already proposed to raise the current cap of 1,000 permits to an unspecified number, following an outcry from the pro-Palestine crowd that 1,000 wasn’t enough. Cabinet tabled an Inquiry Of Ministry in the House of Commons, noting “the Department of Immigration has not refused any applications.”“The Department of Immigration cannot finalize applications until clients have exited Gaza,” MPs added. The figures were disclosed at the request of Conservative MP Tom Kmiec who asked, “With regard to temporary special measures for extended family in Gaza due to the Israel-Hamas war, how many applications have been accepted?”“We have only been able to see 14 people come out of Gaza into Egypt since the inception of the program,” Miller told reporters March 20.“I think there’s a tension between publicly supporting individual efforts to have people extract themselves, sometimes with dubious actors and bribing people, including perhaps even criminal elements, to save their own lives. That can’t be an official policy of the Government of Canada.”Miller last December 21 said he would waive immigration rules to grant permits to a limited number of Gazans to enter Canada. “We are thinking in the hundreds,” Miller said at the time. The number was later expanded to a thousand cousins, in-laws and other distant relatives of Canadians or permanent residents eligible for special visas.“This is a program that we knew from the get-go could be a failure,” Miller said last Wednesday. “Up to now it is a failure and it’s something I think we need to realize. This is Canada’s effort to get people out. We will obviously lift the cap. The new number is not something we have figured out yet. We have a sense of what that is but are not prepared to speculate on what that new number is.”Depite his remarks in December that Israel “has their say,” Miller on February 29 blamed Israel for conducting what he called “the largest hostage taking in the world” in Gaza. “We are all failing Gazans at this point,” he said.“I think that is something we need to realize, it’s probably the largest hostage taking right now in the world. People in and around Rafah are very exposed to death, to starvation, to bombardment.”
