(Ottawa) Under heavy fire from critics for several days, Ottawa is throwing some weight in order to facilitate the arrival of Ukrainian refugees. The obligation to provide biometric data is waived for three categories of persons.
Posted at 5:53 p.m.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said during question period in the House on Tuesday that “for certain low-risk cohorts, some people would no longer be required to provide biometrics to facilitate entry of a more people in Canada as quickly as possible.
The three categories of people who see this constraint disappear are young people aged between 14 and 17, people who are aged 60 and over and those whose visa had already been approved beforehand and who do not have a file. problematic immigration, Minister Fraser’s office was told later.
These relaxations have in fact been in force since last Saturday, it was specified, without being able, for the time being, to provide an assessment of the number of files which could be processed more quickly under new rules. Added to these is the opening of a second sorting center in Warsaw, Poland, and the addition of staff in Vienna, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague and Bratislava, Fraser said.
Outraged at the slowness of the reception process for Ukrainians fleeing the war, the opposition parties demanded the complete abandonment of the collection of biometric data – the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada collects 10 fingerprints, biographical information and the photograph of the applicants.
Since launching the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization program on March 17, the federal government has received more than 60,000 emergency travel authorization applications from Ukrainians and members of their family.
According to figures provided by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), 11,827 Ukrainian nationals, including Canadian permanent residents, arrived on Canadian soil between 1er January and March 27. Of this number, 6,314 Ukrainian citizens (including Canadian permanent residents) arrived between February 21 and March 27.
The opposition also urges the Trudeau government to reach an agreement with airlines to charter aircraft. At Air Canada, it was reported on Monday that “discussions are continuing[ai]always with the government”. For its part, Air Transat has “offered [son] know-how and [son] support to the government if they wish to organize an operation of this type”.
Minister Fraser assured the Commons on Tuesday that talks were continuing with the companies.