More than 1,000 foreign participants are still awaiting a response from Immigration Canada to their visa application to be able to attend COP15, which begins in less than a week.
The ministry claims to have received 3,732 visitor visa applications in anticipation of this international conference on biodiversity, which Montreal will host from December 7 to 19.
According to official figures, 2,466 files have been “processed and approved” as of yesterday.
This means that a little over 1,000 people are still in the dark as to whether they can be present at the summit, where between 10 and 15,000 representatives are expected.
A few days before its opening, “Canada is not doing very well internationally,” said Klaudios Mustakas, a former manager of Immigration Canada who has become an immigration consultant at the firm Pace Law, in Ontario.
“Six of our delegates applied on time, but are still waiting for a response,” says Graziela Tanaka, of the Rights and Resources initiative, which funds the travel of participants from local, indigenous or Afro-descendant organizations from the “south. overall”.
Wasted effort
“I think they will have no choice but to cancel their trip, because it’s not worth it to be there only for half the convention”, she drops with regret .
Considering Canada’s visa requirements, those at risk of missing COP15 are mostly from countries in Asia, South America and Africa.
“As much as it is very important to have these countries represented at the COP, they are usually the countries where it is the most difficult to obtain a visa”, regrets Ms. Tanaka.
“It’s a pity, because it is the Africans who master the causes of the erosion of Africa’s biodiversity and who know the answers to be given”, gives as an example Robert Kasisi, honorary professor of the University of Montreal and director of a natural science research center in the Congo. “We will have missed an opportunity to seriously consider solutions to reverse the trend.”
Déjà vu
The situation is reminiscent of the International AIDS Conference in Montreal last summer, where similar visa issues created an outcry.
For its part, Immigration Canada recalls having asked the delegates of the Convention to apply before November 15 to ensure that they receive a response in time.
This deadline would not have been respected by all, according to Stuart Isherwood, spokesman for the ministry.
“We strive to ensure that applications are submitted and processed despite [tout]“, he writes to the Log.