We’ve been witness to some horrific things in our news feeds lately — around the world, multiple wars are being waged, with people needing to leave their homes to escape the violence. This of course includes Gaza where more than 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced as Israeli forces continue their onslaught. It also includes Sudan, where civil war has forced more than 10 million people from their homes. In other parts of the world — places like Haiti, Venezuela and Afghanistan — people are being displaced by political and economic strife.
The Canadian government has responded to some of these global events with programs to accept some of the asylum seekers.
But there has been deep criticism of these programs because of the disparities between them.
On an earlier episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we highlighted the government’s program for Ukrainians. Ukrainian asylum seekers faced fewer requirements than others, and there was no cap on the number of visas. Canada has now issued nearly one million temporary visas to Ukrainians, and so far more than 200,000 people have entered the country. Meanwhile, the Canadian government set aside only 1,000 visas for Palestinians coming from Gaza.
Recent programs designed for Sudan and several South American countries were also granted significantly fewer spots — with onerous requirements for their applications.
These programs come as there’s been an increase in refugee claims to Canada following the closure of Roxham Road and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Safe Third Country Agreement last year.
According to today’s Don’t Call Me Resilient podcast guest, Christina Clark-Kazak, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, refugee policy in Canada has always been politicized, but more so in recent years, evidenced recently in discrepancies between programs for refugees from Gaza and Sudan and those from Ukraine.
Clark-Kazak says: For some people we’re rolling out the red carpet..in fact, there was even charter flights. Then there’s other groups of people who are facing very similar situations where we’re effectively using all means possible to try to ensure that they will not come here.“
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Credits
Latifa Abdin is our co-producer on this episode. Jennifer Moroz is the consulting producer. Krish Dineshkumar is our sound editor.