'Mission impossible'

Montreal, Canada – “Unlivable.” That’s how Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, described the situation in the Gaza Strip in late December.

The Palestinian territory was under fierce Israeli bombardment at the time. At least 20,000 people had been killed, and hunger was spreading at an alarming rate as Israel blocked deliveries of food, water and other necessities.

As conditions continued to deteriorate, Miller announced that the Canadian government was launching a special visa programme to allow citizens and permanent residents to bring extended family members from Gaza to Canada.

“To be clear, today is about providing a humanitarian pathway to safety and recognising the importance of keeping families together given the ongoing devastation,” he told reporters on December 21.

But more than three months later, not a single Palestinian applicant has left the Gaza Strip as a result of the visa programme.

That has fuelled a sense of anger and frustration for families who say Canada has abandoned them and their loved ones — and are demanding action from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

“What are they waiting for?” asked Samar Alkhdour, a Palestinian mother who has lived in Canada since 2019 and received permanent residency in February.

Alkhdour began a daily sit-in outside Miller’s office in Montreal, the second-largest city in Canada, late last month to put pressure on the government to get her relatives out of Gaza.

She is trying to bring her sister, her sister’s husband and their two children — who are currently living with relatives in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza — to Montreal to join her and her family.

But the family’s applications remain in the early stages of the process, Alkhdour told Al Jazeera.

“I’m still fighting, I’m working on it,” she said in late March at the sit-in, a black-and-white keffiyeh draped over her shoulders. “But deep down inside, in my heart, I’m starting to lose hope.

"And maybe that’s one reason I’m here — because no one’s doing nothing.”

Once in Canada, the Gaza visa programme allows extended family members of ​​Canadian citizens and permanent residents to receive temporary residency for up to three years.

But almost from the moment the scheme was unveiled, families and lawyers raised serious concerns: They said the application process was confusing and time-consuming and that it included invasive questions that went beyond what is typically required.

Rights advocates also accused the Canadian government of imposing stricter requirements on Palestinians than on other people who have sought protection in the country in recent years, such as Ukrainians.

“It is such a disaster,” said Debbie Rachlis, a Toronto immigration and refugee lawyer who represents families seeking to bring their relatives to Canada. “It is the worst thing I’ve ever seen or experienced.”

To apply, Canada-based family members — or "anchors" — must fill out a form outlining their intention to support the individuals they want to bring to the country. If the anchor meets the requirements, they then receive reference codes that they need to use to submit their relatives’ temporary resident visa applications.

But Rachlis told Al Jazeera that many families did not receive those codes. "There was no explanation as to why some people got codes and other people didn’t," Rachlis said, describing the process as "total, total chaos".

She added that many families filed applications right away, to avoid delays. Still, the codes came months later.

"I had applications that I submitted January 9 — less than four hours after the programme opened — and I got codes March 19," she said.

A sense of hurriedness has loomed over the entire process, as Canada initially said it would only issue 1,000 temporary visas. That spurred a frantic rush to submit applications, as well as criticism of the government’s plan.

Canada has since said there would be no hard cap on the number of visas that are approved.

“It [was] like the Hunger Games where everyone is competing against each other,” said Rachlis.

Yet even if families make it through the process and their applications are approved, the Canadian government has said that getting a greenlight from Ottawa does not mean people will be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip.

Miller, the immigration minister, also acknowledged last month that “a lot of elements there are way beyond our control”.

“This is a programme that we knew from the get-go could be a failure. Up to now, it is a failure — and it’s something I think we need to recognise,” he told reporters on March 20.

Israel and Egypt maintain strict control over who can exit the Palestinian territory, which has been under a blockade for years, even before the current conflict. The Israeli government also imposed a total siege on Gaza following Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

While some Palestinians have crossed into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing since the war began, the process remains difficult and costly.

Egypt has largely kept the southern border crossing sealed. Some Palestinians in Gaza have paid thousands of dollars in bribes to cross the border despite the restrictions.

"We are reaching out to local authorities at all levels to advocate for the approval of names put forward by the Government of Canada for crossing," Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told Al Jazeera in an email.

The department said 32 people who left Gaza without Canada's help had been approved to come to the country as of March 25.

IRCC was reviewing 986 temporary resident visa applications as of that same date. "Processing times will vary based on the details of each application,” it added.

Rachlis, the Toronto lawyer, explained that while “it has not been said explicitly to [her] that it’s Israel and not Egypt” holding up the departures from Gaza, “it’s pretty clear that it’s Israel.”

“Israel is the problem and Israel is the hold-up, and yet the minister and the Canadian government will spend a lot of time telling us all about how they’re our ally and friend,” she told Al Jazeera.

Canada and Israel have maintained close ties for decades.

But since the Gaza war began, Prime Minister Trudeau’s government has faced growing domestic pressure to secure a lasting ceasefire to end the Israeli offensive.

That pressure has translated into limited, largely symbolic action, though. Miller addressed the visa programme’s failings on March 20, a day after Canada’s Parliament passed a non-binding motion calling for a suspension of Canadian arms exports to Israel, among other measures.

The resolution — which was amended and garnered support from several members of Trudeau’s cabinet and Liberal Party — spurred anger from Israeli officials.

I spoke today with Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau.

I conveyed my appreciation to The Prime Minister for his personal commitment to Israel’s security.

In light of the upcoming vote in Canada’s parliament calling for the unilateral recognision of a Palestinian State, I…

— בני גנץ - Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) March 18, 2024

While Miller defended the motion as “fair”, he said its adoption “doesn’t help” get more Palestinians out of Gaza.

“The Israeli government has been quite clear in saying they are watching the actions of the Canadian government, and any actions that are seen as to be unfavourable can affect their decision-making at the highest political level,” he told reporters.

“I’m not saying the motion was a bad thing to adopt; I think it represents a principled position of Canada as amended. But actions of the Government of Canada [have] consequences,” Miller continued.

“And on the particular impact on that [Gaza visa] programme, I don’t think that motion is necessarily a good thing.”

Still, IRCC told Al Jazeera that Canada “will continue to advocate for the approval of people who have passed preliminary security screening to cross the Rafah border and work with partners to support those affected by the crisis with a connection to Canada”.

Yet for the many families seeking to get their relatives out of Gaza, prolonged delays can mean the difference between life or death.

Palestinian Canadian Rami Aljadba, 41, submitted initial documentation to bring 18 members of his and his wife’s families to Canada just hours after the special Gaza programme launched in January.

But Aljadba and his wife then spent several weeks waiting to receive a reference code to put in their loved ones’ Canadian temporary resident visa applications. “It was wait, wait and wait,” said Aljadba.

And as Israel’s bombardment showed no signs of slowing down and conditions worsened across the enclave, the family was left with a painful decision in mid-February.

They could either risk their lives by staying in Gaza in hopes of receiving the codes and finalising their applications. Or they could leave for Egypt and try to get into Canada another way.

Under the rules of the special visa programme, Palestinians must be in the Gaza Strip when they put in their visa applications. If they leave before submitting their applications, they are no longer eligible.

Ultimately, Aljadba said he had no choice but to get his relatives out. “I don't want to have dead family members with codes. I would rather have them in Egypt,” he recalled thinking.

About a month after the family paid thousands of dollars to get his sister, her children, his father, his brother and his brother’s family to Egypt, they received the code to submit their applications.

“It felt like mission impossible to complete these applications,” Aljadba told Al Jazeera about the process.

“I feel so mad at the whole system,” he added. “Other governments are able to bring extended family members of citizens out, but we were left to deal with this on our own.”

After leaving Gaza for Egypt, Aljadba’s brother and his family were able to get to Belgium thanks to his work, but they are still hoping to get to Canada through another visa scheme.

Aljadba’s father has another type of visa to come to Canada, and his sister and her children are waiting for a decision on their applications for another type of visa, too.

“We want them to have a good start, another start, another chance in life,” said Aljadba.

“The emotional trauma that our family is going through is unbearable, and again I want to emphasise that we are one of the lucky ones.”

Alkhdour, the Palestinian mother who is protesting outside the immigration minister’s office in Montreal, knows firsthand what immigration delays can mean.

While she, her husband and two of their children have been in Canada since 2019, Alkhdour’s eldest daughter, Jana, had remained in Gaza with extended family members.

Suffering from cerebral palsy, Jana had been denied an exit permit. Her health condition also made her route out of the Gaza Strip more complicated because she needed to be accompanied by relatives.

While Alkhdour had been fighting to get Jana to Canada for years, her efforts took on renewed urgency when the war in Gaza broke out in October.

But Alkhdour was met with more hurdles. While Jana received permission to leave Gaza for Egypt with one accompanying relative, she needed two people with her to travel safely. The wait continued.

Finally, a second relative received a permit to travel with Jana. But it was too late: The 13-year-old, who had been sheltering in a church in Gaza City, died in early January.

Alkhdour told Al Jazeera that Jana passed away due to malnutrition and a lack of medicine.

“I never realised that it’s going to take this long to be separated from her,” she said.

“I didn’t have the chance to even hug her or kiss her. These last moments, I didn’t have the chance to have them [with her], being here in Canada. And she was my first child ... the first joy of my life.”

Alkhdour said she believes the Canadian government’s inaction caused Jana’s death.

But the strength her daughter showed throughout her short life — and the will of so many other Palestinians fighting to survive under Israel’s bombardment in Gaza — pushes her to continue advocating for her relatives and all those living through the war.

“My own experience with my daughter, I don’t want that to be repeated again for any of my family members in the Gaza Strip — and not for any Palestinian family,” Alkhdour said.

“There are a lot of other families in the Gaza Strip, a whole population, being subject to genocide and the most heinous crimes happening in modern history, and they’re surviving, they’re fighting.

“This gives me the strength and power and hope that we’re here, we’re not showered by bombs. We have to fight for them.”