(Montreal) The federal government will allocate an additional $100 million for emergency health services in Ukraine, “in response to the worsening humanitarian crisis”.
Posted at 1:01 p.m.
Updated at 4:11 p.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Saturday at the “Acting for Ukraine” donor conference. These donations will be used to provide “trauma care, as well as protection and basic necessities such as shelter, water and food,” the statement read.
The federal government also announced measures to help Ukrainians arrive in the country quickly. Charter flights to Canada, short-term income assistance and temporary hotel accommodation will be offered to refugees, among other things.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced on Saturday that the federal government was finalizing details with the airlines.
Among the additional measures for people fleeing the war in Ukraine: income support of $ 500 per week can be provided for six weeks for those who need it, said Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.
Temporary hotel rooms may also be offered for a period of two weeks.
According to the ministers, these measures, in addition to facilitating the arrival of Ukrainians in Canada, will relieve the European countries which already host a large number of refugees.
“Work is underway and we are finalizing the details as to how many charter flights and where they will go,” said Alghabra, who hopes to make the announcement in the coming days.
These measures will apply to Ukrainians who arrive in the country on the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (AVUCU).
According to Minister Fraser, the challenge of setting up charter flights also comes from the fact that Ukrainians, once the request for AVUCU has been made, can continue to travel in Europe. “We are facing an unprecedented situation, it is not as if we had a refugee camp next to an airport with thousands of people waiting to board a plane,” he explained.
In addition, Canada has improved the processing of biometric data in several countries bordering Ukraine, according to Mr. Fraser. “We now have the capacity to process 19,000 appointments each week and we will continue to monitor these migration flows so that people can have timely access to appointments. [pour la collecte de données biométriques] “, he specified.
AVUCU allows Ukrainians to stay in Canada for three years and obtain a temporary work permit or a study permit.
Canada has already approved more than 30,000 applications from people wishing to come to the country under this program. About 12,000 of them have already arrived, according to Minister Fraser’s parliamentary secretary, Marie-France Lalonde, who insisted that these are “approximate figures”.
“At the beginning, in January, we increased the measures and approximately 8,000 people came to Canada [avant l’AVUCU]. To know where exactly… They already had links, friends, ”also explained Mme The Londe.
In order to ensure better follow-up with the refugees, since 1er April, the airport service points make it possible to collect more information on the interprovincial movements of Ukrainians arriving in Canada, detailed the parliamentary secretary.
Since last January, Canada has provided $245 million in humanitarian assistance related to the conflict in Ukraine.
With The Canadian Press