OTTAWA — The Immigration Department refuses to say whether any applicants actually misused a refugee permanent resident sponsorship policy the government allowed to expire last week, citing “potential integrity concerns.”
The policy offered exemptions to allow certain refugees to sponsor a family member for permanent residency who was not listed on their initial application.
Without this exemption, applicants are permanently barred from sponsoring family members for permanent residency if they were not declared on their original application.
Advocates and academics who pushed for the policy said it was most commonly used to sponsor children — including some who had not been born when an application was first made — and LGBTQ2S+ partners in countries where those relationships are criminalized.
Jenny Kwan, the NDP’s immigration critic, said refugees trying to come to Canada should not be punished for circumstances beyond their control. She said the government has offered “no credible explanation” for the policy’s termination.
“They quietly shut it down, and now it is going to have, I have no doubt, significant implications for refugee families in that reunification,” Kwan said.
“So they’re not broadcasting it, it means that they’re not proud of it.”
The Canadian Press asked again Wednesday if anyone had actually misused the seven-year old policy.
“We have nothing further to add,” a department spokesperson said.
“It’s fair to say that Canadians expect immigration programs to be applied as intended. And we take seriously our responsibility to put in place policies that people can trust and that serve them well.”
Kwan said ending this policy will have serious consequences for refugee families.
“I have met refugee families who did not know that their young child, as an example, was still alive. They came to Canada and the young child was not part of that application because they thought that they had lost their child. They thought that the child was dead,” Kwan said.
“These things happen because people are displaced. They’re in sometimes a war environment in conflict, they get separated from their loved ones, they don’t even know that possibly their loved ones could still be alive.”
