Canada should ease visa requirements to allow more Ukrainian refugees, report says

Article author:

The Canadian Press

Bill Graveland

CALGARY — According to a new report, Canada changed federal visa policy to expedite the entry of Ukrainian refugees.

Compared with other countries, hundreds of people have been displaced since the Russian invasion, according to a University of Calgary School of Public Policy study released Thursday. We accept 10,000 Ukrainians. Eastern European country in February.

"Applications by Ukrainians are starting to far exceed the numbers allowed by the Canadian government, and we don't even have a really clear picture of how many Ukrainians are entering the country. No,” said author Robert. falconer.

Statistics show that the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (CUAET) program to quickly obtain visas and temporary residence permits for Ukrainians and their families is inadequate, he said.

As of June 22, there were approximately 190,000 Ukrainians applying to enter Canada, up from 140,000 about a month ago.

Mr Falconer said the program, which requires immigrants to obtain visas, is the reason Canada lags behind other countries. Most notably Ireland has exempted visa requirements.

"One of his objections within a parliamentary committee was that if Ukrainians were included, Russian spies would use it to infiltrate the system." He said.

"Russian espionage does exist, but refugee channels are one of the most inefficient ways to get Russian spies into the country."

} Falconer said that with the right resources, federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies can manage the security risks associated with visa processing. He recommends that Canada either adopt the Irish model, or adopt another option to check visas once people arrive. If you haven't, I think you're doing something called the on-arrival model that many countries do, where when you arrive at the airport you have to wait a while for government officials to perform security checks. said Falconer.

"You could do some risk assessment and scrutinize an eight-year-old kid who is probably not a Russian spy, but an unaccompanied male in his mid-twenties... Buck You can hold them while we process ground checks, and we'll let them enter the country.Get them to a safe place first and then process them from there."

Falconer said. , said that an overwhelming majority of Canadians support accepting a large number of Ukrainian refugees, and that our country has the highest percentage of people of Ukrainian descent after Ukraine and Russia.

According to the report, Canada and the United Kingdom have adopted similar processes for accepting Ukrainian refugees, with comparable numbers.

According to it, the number of Ukrainian refugees per capita who arrived in Ireland in his first two months of the invasion was about 13 times higher than in Britain.

Falconer said the report's findings will be forwarded to the federal government, but it is unclear whether that will lead to any relaxation of requirements.

" I think they're probably aware, I think they're very, very, very concerned — more about how overall immigration files are generally going than Ukrainians is important.”

This Canadian Press report was first published on August 11, 2022.

Sign up to receive daily top stories from National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

84} By clicking the subscribe button, you agree to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking unsubscribe. Link at the bottom of our email. Post Media Networks Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300