CIMM – Inquiry Of Ministry – November 07, 2023

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Question No.
Q-1678

By
Mr. Ruff (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound)

Date
June 20, 2023

The Honourable Marc Miller

Question

With regard to the Special Immigration Measures for Afghan Nationals who assisted the Government of Canada: (a) broken down by unique email address, how many applications were received via email or webform for this program, to date; (b) how many application names did not appear on Department of National Defence (DND) or Global Affairs Canada (GAC) referral lists; (c) were the applicants in (b) notified that their application was not referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; (d) if the answer to (c) is affirmative, what recourse options are available to the applicant to demonstrate their eligibility; and (e) what guidance or internal policy has DND and GAC used to determine eligibility of Afghan Nationals that applied for this program?

Reply

Insofar as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is concerned:

With regard to the Special Immigration Measures (SIM) program for Afghans who assisted the Government of Canada in Afghanistan, it is important to clarify what constitutes an “application”. Only individuals who receive an Invitation to Apply from IRCC, as a result of a referral from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) or the Department of National Defence (DND), and subsequently submit a complete application, are considered to have an application under the SIM program. Emails and webforms from Afghans inquiring about the SIM program or providing documentation are considered to be expressions of interest.

• Since August 2021, SIM program intake mailboxes have received a very large volume of inquiries - over one million. This large volume does not allow unique email addresses to be parsed nor would this be an accurate metric for how many Afghans have expressed interest in the SIM program. The Government of Canada has encountered many instances of a unique email address being used to share a list of many affiliated Afghans interested in resettlement or cases where an individual has sent multiple different expressions of interest using different email addresses. The webform and intake mailboxes have also both received correspondence unrelated to the SIM program.
• As referral partners for the SIM program, GAC and DND have maintained a multi-step process to validate whether Afghans who expressed interest in the program have a significant and/or enduring relationship to the Government of Canada. Given the very high volume of expressions of interest received for the SIM program, determining exactly how many Afghans interested in the SIM program and have not been referred by GAC and DND is not possible.
• Given the high volume of inquiries, Afghans who sent expressions of interest to GAC and DND were not notified that they had not been referred.
• While the answer to C is not affirmative, Afghans interested in resettling to Canada may wish to consult the IRCC website for additional information on resettlement and other immigration programs for which they may be eligible to apply.