(OTTAWA) Ukrainians continue to apply in droves under the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (CUATU), eight months after the launch of the program, which aims to provide a quick route to temporary residence for three years in Canada for these people who fled the war.
Approximately 14,000 requests are filed each week, Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Larisa Galadza, noted Thursday during an appearance before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. According to her, the program and the number of applicants are “unprecedented”.
Data released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reveals that Ottawa received between March 17 and November 8 approximately 676,000 applications, of which nearly 379,000 were approved.
However, only about 80,000 to 90,000 people have arrived in the country, the ambassador said, adding that the government does not know how many Ukrainians will come to Canada under the program and how many will want to settle in the country permanently.
Senator Michael MacDonald of Nova Scotia then asked him what obstacles face the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have been approved and who have yet to come.
“Some may face barriers to leaving,” she replied. Men of fighting age, under martial law, are barred from leaving, but they may have applied and obtained a visa in the hope that at some point they might be able to leave. »
His “personal theory” is that it is for many Ukrainians “a plan B, an insurance policy” to have this three-year visa in their pocket “just in case” they need it. Ukrainians also perceive Canada as a “friendly” country, she noted. The country also has the largest population of Ukrainian origin in the world after Ukraine and Russia.
Justin Trudeau’s government initially pledged to process “regular and non-complex cases” with AVUCU within 14 days.
When the program was launched in mid-March, all the main opposition parties in the House of Commons demanded red tape relief for Ukrainians fleeing the war. The visa requirements that remain under AVUCU, in addition to the requirement to provide biometrics, have been widely criticised.
Ottawa had also promised charter flight options for anyone approved for AVUCU. Only three flights were ultimately carried out, carrying approximately 900 nationals.
The government then announced an initiative to finance, through a collection of points and cash, the transport of 10,000 Ukrainians wishing to reach Canada, but The Canadian Press revealed in August that barely 800 tickets had been distributed.