(Ottawa) The security screening the federal government has put in place for people wanting to flee the Gaza Strip is facing criticism from lawyers who say its questions are too invasive and others who think that the control should be even more thorough.
A special program that would allow up to 1,000 people in Gaza with relatives in Canada to apply for visas opened last week, with the federal government conducting background searches at an unusual level of detail.
People are asked to provide their social media accounts, details of their scars and other marks on their bodies, information on anyone they are related to – including through marriage – and any passports they have. they had.
Yameena Ansari, a Calgary immigration lawyer who lobbied for the program, says these questions create anxiety among families, who fear their loved ones will struggle to respond after three months largely without access to the internet, electricity or even adequate food or clean water.
Mme Ansari says these questions are also extremely painful, because they suggest that families desperate to flee the violence in Gaza are suspected terrorists.
Lawyers for Secure Immigration, a group formed at the start of the latest war between Israel and Hamas, urged the government in a letter last week to ask more pointed questions related to Hamas and terrorist activities to ensure that none of the armed militant group’s supporters will be allowed to enter Canada.