St. Albert resident Andrea Marko has some issues with the way the Canadian government is handling visas for those who are fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“There have been a lot of struggles through the application process where [my family is] presently staying in Warsaw, Poland. And the other issue is that a lot of Canadians are assuming that once [Ukrainians] are here, they will be provided with the same federal support as other refugees have been able to access and that is definitely not the case,” she said.
Marko is sponsoring her cousins Ivanna and her nine-year-old son Stanislav (Staz) Kutsiaba.
The Kutsiabas arrived in Warsaw, Poland, from Sokal, Ukraine, on March 6. It has taken the family a month-and-a-half to get everyone’s Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) applications in place so they can fly to Canada.
Marko said the main issue she sees is that Canada lacks support in booking and processing biometrics. Canada, said Marko, needs more people who can do this.
“My cousin, who had her visa processed, needed to go pick it up. She said there was just one person processing all the passports. She needed to stand in line for five hours and was turned away to come back the next day,” she said.
Ivanna was finally able to pick her visa up on April 6 — a full month after the family arrived.
Marko is worried that Poland is struggling to accommodate all of the refugee families.
According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), current from April 17, 4.9 million refugees have fled Ukraine. Poland has taken in more than half of those refugees — 2.78 million.
Data from a Government of Canada website showed between Jan. 1 and April 10, 2022, 4,347 Ukrainian citizens and returning Canadian permanent residents of Ukraine arrived in Canada by land, while 12,250 Ukrainian citizens and returning Canadian permanent residents of Ukraine arrived in Canada by air.
The website also stated, between March 17 (the day the visa program opened) and April 12, 2022, about 140,877 CUAET temporary resident visa applications were received, and 46,417 CUAET applications were approved.
Marko said the problems aren’t just in the length of time it takes for the CUAET to be processed, but also the lengths they must go to get an application prepared.
“The biggest difficulty is well, first of all, a lot of refugees, Ukrainian refugees, do not have access to computers. They have a cell phone; the application cannot be done through cell phone. It has to be on a Mac or a PC,” she said.
The second issue is the application is in English only and they must find someone who is willing to help them translate the documents into Ukrainian and then back into English, as all the documentation must be in English.
“[Ivanna’s] son, his parental consent to travel from the father, was in Ukrainian. This was not acceptable. Therefore, she needed him to have it translated in English, but the Ukrainians are in a war — this is difficult to access. And also, his Ukrainian passport needed to be translated into English,” Marko said.
Even as a concerned family member and sponsor, Marko was unable to get information to see if the application had been entered correctly.
“Part of the problem is that I needed to be a representative on file, which required me to: have a signature; send that back for them to print up that form; [get] my cousin to sign; and then [resubmit] once again.
“They could not take a photo and send it in, it had to be scanned in and it's a problem. I was never able to get direct help,” Marko said.
Marko is also concerned Ukrainian refugees will not receive the same support as refugees from other countries. She is afraid there is an expectation that the people who come over here will have to work. As these refugees are fleeing war, with small children and sometimes little English language skills, she is worried about how they will manage.
“I do understand that they are not refugees in the sense that they want to go back to their country. However, I would like to see an exception made for these families to be provided for federal support, as they are being displaced by war, essentially. If they were to stay in Ukraine, they are being persecuted by Russia,” she said.
Staz did not receive his visa until April 14. Marko wanted the family to fly in this weekend, but the nine-year-old does not have his COVID-19 vaccination and they were unable to book a COVID test over the Easter weekend.
The family is set to arrive in St. Albert on April 23.
Marko said they set up a GoFundMe page to pay for the flights, as Canada has not set up charter flights to get Ukrainians here.
“I have talked to an (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) IRCC agent this past Thursday, and as far as they were informed, the government is working on 'encouraging' private companies to offer charter flights and discounted flights. There are no plans in place for the government to be involved further, at this point,” she said.
Marko said her family was feeling hopeless, like Canada did not want them.
“But now that my cousin has received her passport with the visa, they are feeling more hopeful,” she said.
Marko said Ivanna and Staz have been fortunate to be able to stay with a family in Poland and not in a refugee camp.
“There are thousands of people living in these refugee camps. And they are experiencing more of a struggle than what my family has experienced,” Marko said.
Marko would like more of her family and her husband’s family in Ukraine to come to Canada, but they are hesitant, “knowing the roadblocks that have been put in place for them to come and, of course, their goal is not to stay in Canada. They want to be able to go back to Ukraine when the situation improves.”
The office for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada was unable to respond to questions in time for Tuesday’s publication deadline. The office said it was experiencing a high number of calls, but would work diligently to provide information.
