Fleeing Ukrainians prioritized in Canada

Non-citizens don’t qualify for temporary refuge from war

Masouma Tajik fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan in August, leaving her life and family behind at only 22 years old, carrying just one backpack.

Last week, she left the new life she had built for herself over the past six months in Ukraine with only that same backpack in hand.

“I was so sleepless and tired and I was just looking for a way to get out of Lviv, to get to the border,” she said.

Afraid to spend what little money she had on food and exhausted after several sleepless nights, Tajik made her way to Poland with the help of volunteers, under the terrifying din of air-raid sirens.

Her escape from Lviv, Ukraine, to Warsaw, Poland, bore ghastly similarities to her flight from her home in the Herat province of Afghanistan months earlier.

The Canadian government is allowing Ukrainians who have fled Russian aggression to come to Canada temporarily for a period of two years “for those who need a safe haven while the war ravages their homeland,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced last week.

But Fraser’s office says, for now, the program is only open to Ukrainian citizens. That means Tajik cannot apply.

“I just need legal status, I just need a pass so that I could get somewhere stable,” said the now 23year-old data scientist in an interview.

Non-citizens of Ukraine will still be given priority status if they apply to come to Canada through other immigration streams. Several advocates and experts say nationality should not be a consideration when helping people to flee violence.

Will Tao, a B.C.-based immigration and refugee lawyer, said there are hundreds of Afghan refugees who escaped to Ukraine last year, only to find themselves in yet another war zone. “I’m hoping that our policy isn’t strictly limited to citizenship, that residents in Ukraine prior to this can also factor in and that we can accommodate some of those folks,” he said.

The Canadian Council for Refugees said refugees who resided in Ukraine are in an extremely vulnerable situation now.

Executive director Janet Dench said their situation “is more precarious” and reports say some refugees and temporary residents in Ukraine face extra difficulty leaving Ukraine.

Fraser’s office said in a written statement all policy decisions are made with safeguards in place to protect against bias and ensure accessibility for those who need it.