as it happened6:54As Canada takes in people fleeing war in Sudan, families scramble to get their share.
Ashraf Altahir Ahmad worries that if he doesn’t get his elderly parents out of Sudan, they will die.
The Markham, Ont., man is one of many Sudanese-Canadians rushing to get their relatives to safety. new federal program For Canadian families fleeing Sudan’s civil war.
But with millions of Sudanese displaced by the war, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is receiving up to 3,250 applications.
“To be honest, I don’t understand the basis for that.” [the cap]” said Ahmed, president of the Sudanese Canadian Community Association. as it happened Guest host Peter Armstrong.
“When you look at the scale of the impact on people, 3,250 people is not much. We are grateful for the opportunity from IRCC, but we see this as a first step.”
Immigration Minister Mark Miller declined an interview request from the government. As it happens. IRCC spokesperson Jeffrey MacDonald said in an email that intake caps are “standard practice in public policy” and depend on many factors, including available resources and other available immigration routes. Said to be based on.
A bureaucratic nightmare for families
The new permanent residence pathway announced last month will come into effect on Tuesday and will be valid for one year. Children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, and siblings of Canadian citizens or permanent residents are eligible to participate. Each application may include one girlfriend and her next of kin.
“Canada will continue to help those in need and uphold our nation’s humanitarian traditions,” Miller said. In a December statement announcing the program,. “This humanitarian pathway will help reunite people with loved ones and save lives.”
But Huwaida Medani says this is “not a humanitarian program at all.”
A Halifax woman spent the day navigating through a complicated pile of paperwork as she tried to take her brother, his wife and six children.
Keeping track of each applicant’s extensive paperwork is a full-time job, she says. In one case, her brother had to travel 700 kilometers through a combat zone just to obtain a police certificate.
She said everyone she knows is in the same position. She said the program receives tens of thousands of applications, and she suspects only those who have the resources to hire a lawyer will qualify.
“I feel like the bare bones are being thrown at us as Sudanese Canadians. Anyone who has power, who has the best internet, who has the best family situation, has thrown that bone. You can grab it,” she said.
“I’m frustrated and tired and I’m tired of it.”
The Sudanese-Canadian Community Association is calling on the government to ease documentation rules.
“I know that so many people are going through this situation without any evidence. People, they had to run for their lives,” Ahmed said.
The world’s worst displacement crisis
Sudan has been at war since April 2023, with clashes between the military and paramilitary rapid support forces scuppering a planned transition to a civilian government.
The situation has deteriorated rapidly since then, and Sudan now has more displaced people than any other country in the world, including war-torn Syria and Ukraine.
Estimates vary, but the aid group Norwegian Refugee Council (NCR) says the war has displaced 9 million people within Sudan and forced a further 1.7 million to flee the country.
As Sudan’s civil war enters its 10th month, regional aid workers say the conflict is becoming forgotten by the outside world. Millions of people continue to flee conflict to avoid violence, and aid workers are now warning that widespread hunger is next.
As the war intensified, reports such as the following were made: ethnic murder, sexual violence and mass starvation.
“We are horrified to hear from families of horrific incidents of violence, including gang rapes, murders of young men, and parents killed in front of their children,” said NCR Director-General Jan Egeland. . Said as it happened early this month After returning from a Sudanese refugee camp in neighboring Chad.
“The world has forgotten that Sudan has experienced the worst war in recent memory.”
Ahmed said while people’s attention is focused on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, where tensions are rising elsewhere, Sudan has taken a backseat.
“It is a forgotten crisis. And for those seeking power, those fighting in Sudan, it is the perfect situation to be able to continue their atrocities,” he said. “No one is holding them accountable on the international stage.”
He is calling on Canada to step up and use all its power on the world stage to persuade the belligerents to negotiate a peace plan that establishes a civilian government.
“That’s the biggest thing Canada can do, and I think Canada has the ability to do that,” he said.
That’s the big picture. But on a personal level, like countless other Sudanese-Canadians across the country, he is trying to protect his family before it’s too late.
“People like my parents have no choice. Either die in an armed conflict or die.” [because] This is because of drug shortages,” he said.
“It’s very difficult to say, but they have no hope in life.”
