Members of London’s Sudanese community say although they’re relieved Ottawa has reopened a program that would allow them to bring their relatives stuck in the war zone to safety in Canada, they want clarity on how long it will take for their active applications to be processed.
On Thursday, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Canada will reopen applications on Feb. 25 for a family-based humanitarian pathway it first launched last year, and will add 1,750 applications to the 3,250 it has already received for a total of 5,000.
“This extension is a positive step to provide much-needed relief to other families who weren’t able to apply for their families during the previous rounds,” said London resident Nuha Mohamed, who has applied to bring her brother, his wife and their four kids, along with her sister and her three kids, to Canada.
Sudanese Canadians have long criticized the program for its relatively small capacity when compared to humanitarian programs for citizens of other countries fleeing war, lengthy and vague processing times attached to applicationsm, and the high financial burden placed on them.
Applicants must prove they have a high income or that they have $9,900 set aside per person they are applying for, on top of processing fees of $635 per adult and $175 per child.
Mohamed said she applied for her family on Feb. 28, 2024, and the only progress made so far is fulfilling biometric requirement in November. Since then, she has received no answers from Immigration Refugees, Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on the application’s status, she said.
“This is a humanitarian situation, it’s very bad and it’s supposed to be done in an expedited way, so I don’t see any reason for this delay in processing applications,” said Mohamed.
Tens of thousands of people have already died in Sudan due to the conflict that broke out in April 2023. According to the United Nations, half of Sudan’s population — nearly 25 million people — is “experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity,” and millions are displaced. The situation has been declared the worst humanitarian crisis in the world by the African Union.
Mohamed’s family fled Sudan early in the war, with her sister and her kids currently living in the United Arab Emirates, and her brother and his family in Egypt. However, she said there’s a lot of uncertainty with their residential status and ever-changing policies in those countries.
“It’s very vague and I don’t see any other [humanitarian] program that’s come out without clarity about processing times,” she said. “It’s too much stress for myself and my family because it’s difficult when you don’t have answers.”
Ottawa to resettle more than 4,000 refugees by 2026
Miller also said the federal government is committing to resettle 4,700 refugees fleeing the ongoing civil war in Sudan by the end of 2026. Of that amount, 4,000 refugees would receive government assistance, while 700 would arrive through private sponsorship.
IRCC estimates the applications will lead to roughly 10,000 people resettling in Canada via their family anchors here. The program was previously paused after it reached its 3,250 application capacity in May, 2024.
The ministry said it resettled 1,360 Sudanese refugees in Canada between April 2023 and December 2024. Of the more than 7,000 family members of Sudanese Canadians who applied for the permanent residence pathway program, 291 people had landed in Canada as of Feb. 2.
“We need to see a clear process for how these numbers will be rolled out,” said Samah Mahmoud, a London immigration consultant who is part of a Sudanese-Canadian advocacy subcommittee that helps inform IRCC’s policy toward the immigration pathway.
Mahmoud said IRCC told her last year that some applicants would arrive in Canada by 2024, but the majority will arrive by summer of 2025. Applicants who are still waiting have no timelines on their loved ones’ arrivals, she said.
“We also need to know the expected processing times for the Feb 25 reopening. We don’t want to be held up in the same process as the one before,” said Mahmoud.
Pressure from Sudanese Canadians, who demanded urgency from IRCC in an open letter last week, has motivated the government to extend the program, Mahmoud said. While the community is very thankful for this decision, families worry the additional capacity is still not enough to meet the dire situation.
Mohamed believes the family pathway shouldn’t have a capacity since it will let in people to Canada who will be primarily dependant on their families and won’t require government assistance.
The total amount of refugees will also include up to 350 Sudanese nationals privately sponsored by groups of five and community sponsors. Canada intends to waive the requirement for a refugee status determination document and IRCC said it will release more details in coming weeks.
