Israel close to approving Gaza reunification program ahead of Rafah invasion: Miller

OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Israel appeared to be on the verge of approving a program to remove Palestinian relatives of Canadians from the Gaza Strip before the country’s invasion of the city of Rafah.

“While we’ve been limited in our success, it’s certainly not for lack of trying,” Miller told the House immigration committee Monday.

“We will not give up on getting family members to safety.”

His comments come amid growing criticism of measures introduced months ago to bring relatives of Canadians to safety from the conflict zones of the Gaza Strip and Sudan.

Miller announced Monday an increase in the number of applications that will be processed for those leaving the Gaza Strip through the program, but his department is not sure if Palestinians have actually arrived in Canada through these means.

The Gaza program initially had a cap of 1,000 applications that could be “accepted in processing,” meaning that all paperwork was completed before any biometric processing in Egypt. But Miller says 2,903 applications have reached that milestone as of May 24.

Miller has now expanded it to 5,000 apps, each of which can include multiple family members.

The department says it has issued 179 temporary resident permits through the Gaza program since April 29, but it is not known if any have actually arrived in Canada.

The NDP accused the government of botching both the Gaza and Sudan programs and failing to learn from problems in resettling Afghans after the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021.

Relatives in Canada say they received mixed information from Ottawa about the program, which meant some people missed the chance to get out of Rafah by other means.

A memo obtained by Access to Information shows the Immigration Department expected “high volumes” of applications from the start of the program despite the 1,000 cap.

The memo, signed by Miller in December, said limiting arrivals to a maximum of 1,000 would provide some certainty, but that high volumes of applications were anticipated.

The memo notes that there were 45,905 Canadians who have Palestinian ethnic or cultural origins counted in the 2021 census.

Miller said the program he launched in early January requires cooperation from the Israeli government agency that coordinates work in the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT. He claimed this had not happened for months.

“Very recently, we had — until the Rafah crossing was closed again on May 7 — some positive signals from the Israeli government that this program would be recognized and that processing through COGAT would be done in a timely manner,” Miller testified.

Rafah is a town on the Egyptian border that was the only crossing that allowed people to leave Gaza, and only under strict protocols from both Israel and Egypt. It has become a haven for Palestinians fleeing Israeli airstrikes and military attacks in the northern Gaza Strip.

But about three weeks ago, Israel went ahead with an offensive in Rafah, ignoring pleas from Canada, the US and several other countries not to do so. Israel says Rafah has become a Hamas stronghold and is crucial to eliminating the militant group that killed 1,200 people in Israel last October.

Horrific images of children injured in airstrikes and fires burning among camps for displaced people led to protests around the world on Sunday. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reports that 36,000 people have been killed in the war, including combatants.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly reiterated her calls for a ceasefire on Monday.

“We are horrified by the strikes that killed Palestinian civilians in Rafah,” she wrote on Platform X. “This level of human suffering must end.”

The Sudan program is for permanent residency, while the Gaza program is limited to three years of residency, which Miller said is largely based on sensitivities over the idea of ​​Israel reoccupying Palestinian territory.

“There are very important geopolitical considerations, particularly some of the rhetoric around the evacuation of Gaza and the perception that Canada would participate in that,” he testified. “That’s mainly why we didn’t make it permanent.”

Meanwhile, civil war in Sudan erupted last spring, but Miller said he doesn’t expect any relatives to arrive in Canada until late fall at the earliest.

Family members say officials cited delays related to fingerprinting and other biometric requirements. But Miller noted that the Sudan program is a more thorough process because it involves permanent residency.

Miller said Ottawa is accepting 3,250 applications under the Sudan program, of which about 7,000 people will end up in Canada.

He said the number was based on the ability of his department and the “security partners” they have to handle logistics, but could be expanded.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 27, 2024.

-With files from Sarah Smellie of St. John’s.

Dylan Robertson, Canadian Press