(OTTAWA) The federal government says it is now prioritizing temporary visitor visas for people who want to attend the International AIDS Conference in Montreal in late July.
Updated yesterday at 8:00 p.m.
However, the conference starts in two weeks and hundreds of people who hope to attend are still uncertain about their travel plans. Many others, mostly from Africa, Asia and South America, have already had their visa applications rejected, including some who received partly federally funded scholarships to attend.
A spokesperson for Minister Fraser said in an email to The Canadian Press that visa offices have now received guest lists for the conference and have been told to prioritize their temporary visitor visa applications.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) has taken all available measures to expedite applications as quickly as possible and facilitate travel for this event,” said Aidan Strickland.
The African Alliance is one of 250 international and Canadian organizations that signed a letter to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser in June asking him to intervene in the matter.
The letter warns that there is a real risk that the voices of people living in countries most affected by AIDS will be missing from this conversation. The letter Mr. Fraser received about three weeks ago mentioned at least 400 delegates who were still waiting for visas.
“As things stand, the upcoming conference in Montreal will bring together doctors, scientists and advocates from high-income countries, while many people living with HIV/AIDS in the most affected communities, as well as experienced front-line health care workers, will either have to participate virtually or not at all, ”reads the letter, led by the Coalition of Quebec Community Organizations for the Fight against AIDS (COCQ-sida).
“It is not acceptable and it is not the image of Canada that we want to show to the world. »
The move comes as the head of the African Alliance health rights organization slams Canada for offering to host the conference – and spending millions on it – without ensuring that all participants would obtain a visa to attend.
The founder of the African Alliance, Tian Johnson, finds it “really despicable” that thousands of people from the South are still waiting to find out if they will obtain a visa, in order to prevent this conference from becoming an event for “white people”. , the privileged and the academics”.
The International AIDS Conference usually attracts up to 20,000 people. The last version was supposed to be held in San Francisco in 2020, but ended up being virtual due to COVID-19.
Javier Bellocq, an Argentinian who sits on the communities’ delegation to the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said there were positive signs that the Canadian government was trying to resolve visa delays.
He said that in Argentina and Peru, people who have provided the required fingerprints and submitted their applications have recently started receiving the documents they need to submit their passports for the final visa to be issued.
He recently stood in line for hours in Buenos Aires, handed over his passport to the Canadian government, but has no idea when he will get it back with a visa. “We only have two weeks,” worries Mr. Bellocq.
He points out that those who live outside major cities must submit their passports by mail, which will take even longer for the documents to be processed.
A PhD student at Makerere University in Uganda, Jonathan Ssemanda, who waited more than two months for his visa, said it was finally approved in late June. “We have seen a significant change,” he said by text messaging.
Dr. Ssemanda is due to present his research at the conference on improving adherence to antiretroviral drugs. He applied for a visa over two months ago and was told it would take 30 working days to process.
Bellocq said this is not the first time that visa limitations in developed countries have prevented people from developing countries from attending the AIDS conference and it will not be the last. He mentioned that he was pushing for time at the Montreal event to discuss the issue.
The 24e International AIDS Conference is scheduled to take place from July 29 to August 2 at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal.