Alberta mother in Qatar turns to British embassy for child’s passport amid war-related delays

One Alberta family says her family has been feeling ‘hopeless’ as they attempt to leave Qatar. Kathy Le reports.

An Alberta woman living in Qatar says she was left scrambling for options after war in the Middle East delayed the renewal of her young son’s Canadian passport, forcing the family to seek help from a foreign embassy in case they needed to leave the region quickly.

Kristen Griffiths, who has lived in Doha for six years with her British husband and their two young children, said the conflict has brought missile and drone attacks close enough to make safety a daily concern.

• Previous coverage: Former Alberta family stuck in a warzone

“You get three or four alerts a day, or sometimes you go almost 24 hours without one and you start to kind of feel like things are going back to normal,” Griffiths said.

“And then all of a sudden, 1:30 a.m., 5:45 a.m., which happened to us on Friday morning, and explosions loud enough that shake the house and the windows… They were some of the loudest explosions that we’ve had here.”

She told CTV News, “The directive is to shelter in place and find in a room in your house that has the fewest windows and the thickest walls.”

Griffiths said she and her husband wanted to make sure their family could leave Qatar quickly if the situation worsened.

But the renewal for their two-year-old son Carter’s Canadian passport, which she said was submitted before the conflict began, has been delayed as airspace disruptions slowed deliveries.

With the Canadian consulate closed for in-person services, Griffiths said, obtaining emergency documents for her son has not been possible.

“I’ve been up in the middle of the night calling Global Affairs Canada, speaking to people in Ottawa, and no one has given me a solution for how my Canadian citizenship son can get any documents,” she said.

“We didn’t want to be stuck in a situation where we can’t leave if we had to.”

• Read more: ‘Gradual resumption of air travel’ will help Canadians stranded in Middle East, Global Affairs says

Global Affairs Canada confirmed to CTV News this week that Carter’s passport “has been mailed out and is currently on its way to the Embassy of Canada in Doha.” However, the department said that due to airspace closures and other restrictions it could not confirm when the document would arrive.

In a statement Friday, Global Affairs acknowledged widespread passport delays in the region, saying the “gradual resumption of air travel will address the issue.” The department added Sunday that emergency consular services, including the processing of emergency passports, have remained available during the ongoing crisis.

But with the situation unpredictable, Griffiths began looking for another option.

Because her husband is British, the United Kingdom’s embassy made what she described as a rare exception and issued Carter an emergency British passport.

“In any other circumstance they wouldn’t provide this document,” she said.

“But because of the situation and the circumstances that we’re in in the Middle East, they’re doing it.”

Griffiths said the emergency passport now allows the family to travel to the U.K., where they can apply in person for a permanent passport.

“We have to leave the country here in order to get this document, but I think the risk is worth it,” she said.

Even with the British passport, Griffiths said, her son would still not be able to enter Canada.

“As a Canadian citizen, he’d have to enter Canada on his Canadian passport, which he doesn’t have.”

For now, she said, their choices are limited.

“Our options pretty much are England, or waiting it out in Qatar.”

While grateful for the help from the British embassy, Griffiths said the situation has been deeply frustrating.

“I’m just grateful that we have this option, but I keep thinking about all the people who must be in the same situation who don’t have another citizenship to look into,” she said.

“It’s really sad that as a Canadian citizen the only option we have been given is to look for citizenship elsewhere. I’ve never felt so hopeless.”