‘I am mentally destroyed’: Ontario woman with family in Gaza frustrated by visa delays

Rewand Hajjaj, centre, is shown with her sister-in-laws during her visit to Cairo where her extended family from Gaza is waiting to hear word about their applications for the special measures for Gaza families. (Rewand Hajjaj)

Rewand Hajjaj says the lives of her eight nieces and nephews and their mothers have been put on hold for about a year and half after Canada launched a special program to approve temporary resident visas for extended family members in Gaza.

Some permanent residents and Canadian citizens with families in Gaza say they are frustrated by months of delays helping their loved ones get to Canada through Ottawa’s special measures program.

Hajjaj, a former human rights lawyer from Gaza now living in London, Ont., says she submitted applications for her family members in the war-torn region when the program first launched in January 2024.

She said she has been calling MPs, sending emails to government and consular officials and has even flown to Egypt to try to get any information on their applications. But she said she didn’t receive a clear response on why it’s taking a year and half to finish security checks. Her sister made it out of Gaza and obtained her temporary visa in Canada, but her two brothers, a doctor and accountant, were killed while waiting.

“I feel that there is no one that is hearing our voice,” said Hajjaj, a Canadian permanent resident who is now a newcomer settlement worker, in a video interview with CTVNews.ca.

Debbie Rachlis, an immigration and refugee lawyer in Toronto, said Ottawa has been slow to process visas and applications for the program, and federal court cases were launched by some families raising concerns about the applications.

She said people would have to submit a form expressing their interest or intentions online, then be issued unique reference codes by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to be able to be considered for the special Gaza measures. But she said that some families have still not received the codes when they applied in January and February of 2024 with no explanation given, while others submitted forms that were sent back as incomplete.

“A year and a half since this program was announced, very little has actually happened for the family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents in Gaza,” Rachlis said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca.

“A lot of people felt very hopeful when the program was announced only to have those hopes be destroyed, lost in the face of sort of the inaction of the Canadian authorities, the lack of explanation from the Canadian authorities, and communication from the Canadian authorities about what’s happening.”

Remi Lariviere, spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), said in an email to CTVNews.ca on Aug. 8 that the government “remains deeply concerned” about the situation in Gaza and will continue processing applications from the special measures program on a priority basis.

Lariviere said there are “many complex factors” to processing applications for people in the region.

“Movement out of Gaza remains the biggest challenge affecting how quickly we can help Gazans reunite with their family in Canada, as each country sets its own entry and exit requirements,” Lariviere wrote.

“While we continue to advocate for the safe exit of applicants, IRCC does not have the mandate or ability to evacuate foreign nationals from conflict zones.”

Lariviere said the “biggest challenge” continues to be people’s ability to exit Gaza to complete their biometrics, which is part of the application process for the program. The program closed applications after reaching the limit of 5,000 applicants on March 6.

More than 1,750 people who exited Gaza have passed security screenings and have been approved to come to Canada in total as of July 8, with 864 people arriving in Canada, Lariviere said.

Describing the situation as “increasingly dire,” Rachlis said that those who have arrived in Canada under the program were able to exit Gaza on their own, without Canada’s assistance. People had to leave Gaza in order to do the biometrics, one of the program’s security requirements, she said. She said she has many Palestinian clients who are still in Egypt waiting for their visas to be processed or trapped in Gaza.

Hajjaj said she doesn’t understand why there are long delays. She said her family members in Gaza passed the eligibility requirements for the special measures program and were awaiting security clearances. Her sister-in-law and niece even passed the security checks and were still waiting for their visas to be processed, Hajjaj said, but she said she didn’t get any answers on why the status was reversed and changed to “pending.”

“Putting my family files on hold for a security check for kids – they’re aged between 17 and three years only -- and two females is unjustifiable,” she said.

“To be honest, I am mentally destroyed. … the only thing we can think about is bringing these kids to safety.”