Sudanese Canadians feel abandoned by Ottawa as relatives await travel documents

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After clashes between rival Sudanese military leaders plunged the country into widespread armed conflict this spring, Tariq Kamil decided it was time to hurry his family out of Sudan and bring them to Canada.

Mr. Kamil, a 54-year-old Sudanese Canadian, had reason to believe the process would be quick: when the fighting began, the Canadian government announced temporary immigration measures intended to ease the immigration process for Sudanese family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

And so the family made the long trip from Sudan to Egypt, where they expected their stay to be brief. But when Mr. Kamil applied for a visa for his wife under the temporary program, he said, a Canadian government website created for that purpose simply wouldn’t work. A subsequent application for a visitor visa has been languishing.

“So now we are in Cairo,” he said recently. Also with him are his mother, who is not eligible for the temporary immigration measures, and his three children, who have Canadian passports. “We have no idea when they will process the application … you call the embassy, they never reply. If you don’t have an appointment, they don’t let you in.” He said his main concern is getting to Canada before the school year starts, so his children can settle in and prepare.

Mr. Kamil is just one of many Sudanese Canadians who say their loved ones remain trapped in Sudan, or in neighbouring countries, while they wait for Ottawa’s promised help.

The Globe spoke with five Sudanese Canadians who described a confusing program mired in bureaucracy and complicated forms. Some have even travelled to countries near Sudan to support their family members while they wait for Canadian travel documents, and are now facing significant financial problems as a result.

The heavy fighting in Sudan, which is between the Sudanese military and a paramilitary force known as the Rapid Support Forces, began in April. It prompted Western governments to scramble to evacuate their citizens.

Canada, along with its allies, spirited more than 400 Canadians and Canadian permanent residents out of the country, according to Global Affairs Canada, and the federal government knows of dozens of others who left by other means.

There are still 1,918 Canadian citizens who are registered with the Canadian government as being in Sudan, but the actual number there is unknown, because registration is voluntary.

Julie Lafortune, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said the federal government implemented the temporary measures to keep families together, and to allow foreign nationals who fled Sudan with their Canadian family members to apply for temporary residence without paying application fees. Asked to explain the delays, she did not answer directly. She said IRCC is prioritizing processing complete temporary and permanent residence applications from people living in Sudan.

Ms. Lafortune added that IRCC initially created a dedicated link within its temporary resident application portal to help eligible family members of Sudanese Canadians apply for the special measures. After evacuations ended, IRCC updated the online portal to remove this option, she said.

She said IRCC has made it clear that those who are eligible for the temporary measures, but who have not been contacted directly by the Canadian government, can still apply by following steps online.

IRCC’s website says family members eligible for the temporary measures include Canadian citizens’ and permanent residents’ spouses and dependent children who left Sudan on or after April 15th. It says those who do not qualify can still apply for visitor visas outside the temporary program if they meet eligibility requirements, and must pay related fees.

One man, a Sudanese Canadian living in Toronto, told The Globe he travelled to Egypt on May 12 to meet his wife and stepson, who had fled Sudan. The Globe is not naming him because he fears professional and social repercussions for speaking publicly.

He took two weeks off work, thinking that would be enough time for his family members to receive their Canadian documents. Now, he has missed two months of work, leaving him unable to pay rent on his Toronto home. He said he has lost his job, and that his landlord has told him he needs to move out when he returns.

Meanwhile, he, his wife and his stepson are living in an apartment in Cairo, and draining his wife’s savings.

He said he applied for his wife and stepson to come to Canada under the temporary measures the day after they arrived in Egypt, using one form for the two of them. A month later, he said, a consular official told him to apply for visitor visas outside the temporary program, using two separate applications. That was in mid-June, he said, and he has not received a response.

Ashraf alTahir, president of the Sudanese Canadian Communities Association, said Canadians and their relatives are “languishing and stranded” inside Sudan and nearby countries, and that he has heard of some who are stuck in Egypt and being asked to refile for visitor visas.

He said the government led Canadians to believe their relatives would swiftly be approved for travel to Canada. Now, he said, Canadians who travelled to join their families in countries near Sudan are being left with an impossible decision: leave those family members to endure the wait for Canadian documents alone, or stay with them and risk losing jobs and homes back in Canada.

“It’s a very sad situation. I wish IRCC did not raise false hope to those over there,” Mr. alTahir said.

The process has also been challenging for Sudanese Canadians who applied for their wives to come to Canada before the fighting began.

Bakri Al Ahmer, a 57-year-old living in Calgary, said he filled out an application for his wife months before the conflict. Despite a promise from the government to expedite such applications, he said, her case is still in progress.

Before the conflict, he explained, his wife was working in Sudan as a journalist and university professor, and he would visit her for months at a time. Now, her apartment has been destroyed and she’s living with a relative.

Mr. Al Ahmer hired an immigration consultant to advocate on his behalf, but he said even the consultant’s e-mails to IRCC go unanswered.

“The hope came when Immigration said, ‘Okay we’re going to fast-track all these processes.’ But nothing happens,” he said.

“Every day, the news comes: one of your relatives, one of your friends, one of the people you knew has passed away … Bodies are on the streets, nobody collects them,” he said, adding that he rarely sleeps because he’s always on the phone, talking to his wife and keeping up with events in Sudan.

Omar Ahmed, a Sudanese Canadian man who also lives in Calgary, first applied for his wife to come to Canada a few years ago. He said IRCC returned the application after 11 months because it was missing a signature, and his mother-in-law’s e-mail address. (He noted that his mother-in-law was not planning to travel to Canada and doesn’t use the internet.) He had to start from scratch.

Shortly before the fighting began, Mr. Ahmed and his wife travelled from Sudan, where she lives, to the United Arab Emirates to spend some time together. But then the violence started, and she couldn’t return. He has informed IRCC officials that it has been more than 18 months since he applied for her to come to Canada. He said they told him a month ago that his wife’s visa should arrive in four weeks. He is expecting it any day.

“I was really upset by the procedures. The forms are very complicated,” he said.