The federal government has announced temporary measures that could allow extended family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents to flee Gaza, Immigration Minister Marc Miller says.
The federal government will grant temporary residency to extended family members — including spouses, common law partners, children, grandchildren, siblings, parents or grandparents — who want to leave Gaza, Miller told reporters Thursday.
“We’ve had limited ability to get Canadians and permanent residents out, but we have limited it to closer family unit definitions,” he said.
“This expands the definition and allows us a greater set of people that may not be permanent residents or Canadians, but for all intents and purposes represent the family of people that are close to Canadians.”
Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Canada will ‘put the effort’ into getting extended family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents out of Gaza, but the list of people looking to depart will have to be approved by Israel and Egypt.
The current air and ground war was launched in response to Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians. According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, the war has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians and displaced roughly 1.9 million people, and has demolished much of northern Gaza.
Miller said the current humanitarian crisis has made Gaza “unlivable.”
Hundreds of Canadians and permanent residents were able to escape Gaza through the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border last month. Foreign nationals were able to leave Gaza under an apparent agreement between the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas, but the evacuations have since slowed.
Miller said the government doesn’t have “any assurances” that those family members will be able to leave Gaza. He noted that there is an extensive vetting process on the ground.
“We have a cohesive list of people and motivations for them to come out based on this family definition that’s now expanded,” he said. “Whether they do or don’t get out will not be dependent on Canada, but we will put the effort in.”
Miller also announced that immediate family members of citizens or permanent residents who left Gaza or Israel after Oct. 7 and now reside in Canada will be allowed temporarily to apply for study or work permits.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked earlier in the day why the government didn’t act sooner.
“It’s an extremely difficult situation and we have been working very, very hard to get Canadian citizens and their families out of Gaza,” he said.
Trudeau said the government is pushing forward with more measures. He also said there needs to be a longer-term focus on a two-state solution.
“What we need to do is ensure the viability of a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state, living in peace, living in security into the future,” he said.