Turkey and Syria earthquake: Canada accepts more immigrants

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Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said on Saturday that Canada will make it easier for temporary residents from Turkey and Syria to extend their stay in the country and will prioritize visa applications for people from those two countries.

More than 50,000 people were killed and millions displaced after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and several strong aftershocks hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6.

Fraser said the government will allow people from Turkey and Syria who have temporary status to visit family, study or work in Canada to apply for an extension and will wave application fees to them.

He said his ministry would also prioritize processing temporary visa applications for people affected by the earthquake.

“For those who apply for a temporary resident visa, we will be able to process their applications with priority processing,” said Fraser.

“(There are) special procedures that we implement, internal to our system, to provide guidance to our officers to facilitate approval of their cases so that they can come to Canada.”

Fraser said the government learned through its efforts to accept people fleeing Ukraine after Russia invaded their country last year. He said the government has provided temporary protection to large numbers of people from Ukraine much faster than it can provide through regular refugee resettlement programmes.

“We are using a new strategy to help facilitate access for people who find themselves in these situations (who) would normally not be approved to come to Canada,” he said.

“The specific mechanism we are using includes using advanced analytics within the IRCC system to identify people affected by the earthquake and to provide a positive eligibility decision to the entire group of applicants at once.”

The government said that as of March 10, about 600 Syrians and 6,400 Turks were in Canada with temporary status that was set to expire within the next six months.

Last month, the federal government said it would send another $20 million in aid to people affected by the earthquake and match another $10 million in private donations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 18, 2023.

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