Federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said Canada could speed up applications to enter Canada from victims of the recent devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Two major earthquakes rocked southwestern Turkey and northwestern Syria within hours Monday, destroying thousands of buildings.
The death toll in both countries continues to rise; Thursday it reached more than 20,000 dead and at least 75,000 injured.
Tens of thousands of people are also homeless in the middle of winter and struggle to access food, water and shelter.
Minister Fraser indicated this week that his department was trying to determine the effect that an accelerated immigration measure might have on applicants for permanent residence who are already in the Canadian system.
“It’s a reflection that we have now,” he told reporters. We are trying to understand what the impact would be on claimants who are in the system. »
Field help
Canada also sent a disaster assessment team to the region on Wednesday to determine what additional assistance would be needed to aid relief efforts.
And a team of British Columbia search-and-rescue experts who independently offered assistance were due to begin work on the ground as early as dawn on Thursday local time.
As time is running out to pull as many victims alive as possible from the rubble, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the international community to provide money to Turkey and Syria, and to work on physical access for aid to the earthquake-stricken areas of Syria.
Canada announced Tuesday that it would provide $10 million in emergency humanitarian aid. On Wednesday, the government also announced that it would match, up to $10 million, donations made between February 6 and February 22 to the Canadian Red Cross and earmarked for this relief.
Some groups, including the Federation of Canadian-Turkish Associations, have urged Ottawa to do much more. But on Thursday, more than three days after the quakes, hopes of finding many more survivors in the rubble were beginning to fade.
The death toll reported so far exceeds that of the 2011 earthquake off Fukushima, Japan, which triggered a tsunami, killing more than 18,400 people.