CALGARY-
Orysia Boychuk knows firsthand how frustrating and slow the process has become to bring Ukrainian refugees to Canada.
Boychuk, who is president of the Alberta Provincial Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said her cousin Olya has been waiting to come to Canada from Ukraine with her two sons, but the process seems to be stalling.
“She had her biometrics completed on July 5 and still hasn’t received the visa process. Before it took a week, two weeks and now we are running in a month and a half,” Boychuk said on Thursday.
“The process seems to be slowing down. People are anxiously waiting to be processed. I know we have cases where people are trying to get visas going back to April-May and still haven’t been able to get their visas.”
Boychuk’s remarks followed the release of a report urging Canada to change its federal visa rules to speed up the admission of Ukrainian refugees.
The study by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy indicates that, compared to other countries, Canada has received only a small number of the millions of Ukrainians who have been displaced since Russia invaded this Eastern European country in February.
“Applications from Ukrainians are starting to far exceed the number that is granted by the Canadian government and we don’t even have a really clear picture of the number of Ukrainians entering the country,” said author Robert Falconer.
Statistics show that the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization program, which expedites visas and temporary residence permits for Ukrainians and their families, is not enough, he said.
As of June 22, about 190,000 Ukrainians had pending applications to come to Canada, up from about 140,000 a month earlier.
Falconer said the scheme, requiring those arriving to have a visa, is to blame for Canada’s lagging behind other countries, including Ireland, which has waived its visa requirement.
“One of the objections in the parliamentary committee was that if we let the Ukrainians in, Russian spies would use them to infiltrate the system,” he said.
“Russian espionage exists, but the refugee channel is one of the most ineffective ways to try to infiltrate a Russian spy into the country.”
Falconer said federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, with appropriate resources, would be able to manage security risks involving the visa process. He recommends that Canada adopt the Irish model or another option for carrying out visa checks once people arrive.
“If we don’t follow the Irish model, I would say we follow what’s called the arrival model, which many countries do. When you get to the airport, you have to wait a little while while the government officials do the security checks,” Falconer said.
“You do risk assessments and can probably control this eight-year-old who is probably not a Russian spy while an unaccompanied man in his mid-twenties…you could hold him while you process the background check and let him in. First let them get here to safety, then deal with them from there.
Falconer said an overwhelming number of Canadians support the arrival of large numbers of Ukrainian refugees and that our country has the highest percentage of people of Ukrainian descent after Ukraine and Russia.
The report says Canada and the UK have similar processes for admitting Ukrainian refugees and the numbers are comparable.
It says around 13 times more Ukrainian refugees per capita arrived in Ireland than in the UK in the first two months of the invasion.
Boychuk hadn’t seen the University of Calgary report, but said the delays were frustrating.
“These aren’t people who come here without support networks. It’s hard to move on. It’s hard to move on when you’re left in limbo,” she said.
Falconer said the report’s findings needed to be passed on to the federal government, but he’s not sure that would result in a relaxation of the requirements.
“I think they’re probably aware. I think they’re very, very, very concerned – less about Ukrainians and more about how the immigration file is going in general.”
There was no immediate comment from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 11, 2022