CIMM – Particular Response to Ukraine Only – May 12, 2022
Key Messages
We are continually learning from our past experiences so that we can adjust and improve our responses to humanitarian challenges in the future.
Every crisis presents unique challenges for Canada’s response, and for how we evaluate how best we can help. For example, we look at the quality of supports available in neighbouring countries and we coordinate our efforts with our international partners.
European Union Member States have done an incredible job in providing Ukrainians with access to immediate, temporary protection and supports – but we know there is a role for Canada as well.
IRCC introduced the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel to provide Ukrainians with a temporary safe harbour while the war in their home country continues. We heard from the Ukrainian-Canadian community that people wanted to return home once it is safe to do so.
Canada’s response recognizes the extensive Ukrainian diaspora in Canada and family links and supports available, while also providing crucial relief to our international partners.
Supplementary Messages
Unique design of the CUAET:
The CUAET is the fastest and most efficient way for Ukrainians and their families to come to Canada. This measure streamlines current visa and travel requirements and eliminates most application and processing fees.
Ukrainian nationals who arrive through the CUAET are not entering as refugees. We heard from the Ukrainian community that people wanted to come to Canada temporarily, seeking safe harbour while the situation unfolds, and then return home once it is safe to do so.
The CUAET is a temporary program that allows us to get people here quickly. Its design took many factors into consideration, including Canada’s unique relationship with Ukraine, the extensive Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, and family links and supports already in Canada.
The CUAET provides Ukrainians and their immediate family members of any nationality the opportunity to stay in Canada as temporary residents for up to three years, and are eligible for a free open-work permit or study permit, allowing them to take a job with almost any Canadian employer or enroll in an education program in Canada.
Certain lower-risk Ukrainian CUAET applicants are exempt from the overseas biometrics collection requirement. This measure will alleviate overseas biometrics collection capacity issues, enabling IRCC to process applications more quickly.
IRCC relies on biometrics for identity management and program integrity. For this reason, we are working to further increase collection capacity within Europe to facilitate the sustained demand from CUAET applicants.
Despite the strong commitment to support Ukrainians demonstrated by Canadian civil society and the Ukrainian-Canadian community, we recognize that many individuals will need additional supports when they arrive in Canada. This is why we expanded the eligibility of our Settlement Program and will be providing temporary accommodations and short-term transitional financial support to help ease the transition to life in Canada.
Because Ukraine shares borders with the European Union, and IRCC has many visa offices and visa application centres in neighboring countries, the department has been able to leverage its existing temporary resident visa processes, networks and infrastructure to bring as many Ukrainians as we can to Canada as quickly and safely as possible.
Anti-Racism Commitments:
IRCC deals with thousands of applications from people from around the world every day. We take this responsibility seriously and officers are trained to assess applications equally against the clear criteria. As part of our commitment to anti-racism, equity and inclusion we are looking closely at those criteria through the lens of how they impact racialized clients, to ensure our programs and policies are fair, equitable, and culturally sensitive.
We are committed to a fair and non-discriminatory immigration system. We have heard concerns about the “preferential treatment” in the application process being provided to Ukrainians compared to our refugee response in Afghanistan.
There are important contextual and operational points of difference between these two crises that were taken into consideration. Those who arrive through the CUAET are not entering as refugees and are seeking temporary solutions, and we have the physical infrastructure to collect biometrics and do security screenings in EU member states where Ukrainians are located.
I want to emphasize that we take all concerns about discriminatory treatment extremely seriously and continue to carefully review all measures to ensure they align with our commitments to discrimination-free programming and anti-racism commitments.
Background
European Union Member States’ response
To ensure longer protection and as much continuity as possible for refugees, on March 4, 2022, the EU agreed to activate its 2001 Temporary Protection Directive (TPD), a tool designed to address mass influx of displaced persons and facilitate their distribution among EU Member States for more sustainable burden-sharing.
The TPD requires Member States to grant a residence permit, and offer immediate protection and rights including “residency rights, access to the labour market, access to housing, social welfare assistance, medical or other assistance, and means of subsistence”. For unaccompanied children and teenagers, temporary protection confers right to legal guardianship and access to education.”
The TPD was designed to provide immediate, temporary protection to persons who need it and to avoid overwhelming EU Member States' asylum systems. It provides for group-based protection as opposed to individual adjudications, and encourages, “a balance of efforts between the Member State”.
The TPD started immediately and will run for one year, with flexibility to automatically extend by six-month periods for a further year. “The Commission can propose at any time to the Council to end the temporary protection, based on the fact that the situation in Ukraine allows the safe and durable return of those granted temporary protection, or extend it, by one further year.”
IRCC’s approaches to humanitarian crises in Syria and Afghanistan
Syria:
Due to the large global resettlement needs identified by UNHCR and commitments to solidarity and responsibility sharing with major host countries as the refugee situation became protracted, Canada committed to resettling a large number of Syrian refugees using its standard resettlement program.
By the end of February 2016, Canada resettled 25,000 refugees (included GARs, PSRs, BVORs).
An additional 25,000 GARs were resettled by the end of 2016 (included both GAR and BVOR). Some of these were counted in the first commitment.
Afghanistan:
Various special measures and temporary public policies were put in place to provide certain exemptions present in current resettlement programming, in order for the department to meet its commitment to resettle up to 40,000 vulnerable Afghan refugees.
The added complexity of the Taliban, which is a listed terrorist organization, governing Afghanistan has caused challenges with providing safe passage for Afghan refugees. For example:
Canada’s key resettlement partners, the IOM and the UNHCR, do not have a resettlement presence or operational capacity to facilitate resettlement from Afghanistan; and,
Canada does not have a presence in Afghanistan and as a result is not able to collect biometrics for clients in Afghanistan.
