Musa Mohamed Nour died on Sept. 24, 2024. Osman Elbuluk died a month later, on Oct. 25. Zainab Fagir died on March 30, 2025.
All three Sudanese had been waiting to reunite with their families in Canada under Ottawa’s special humanitarian immigration program, launched in early 2024 to shelter those displaced by the war in the northeast African country.
“It breaks my heart that my father spent his final days waiting for government approval rather than being with us in a safe environment,” said Nour’s daughter Soad Nour, whose two brothers are still trapped in Sudan.
On Thursday, the Toronto woman joined a news conference to call on the federal government to prioritize the resettlement of displaced Sudanese before more people will die while waiting for processing.
New Democrat MP and immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the community faces not only an onerous application process and financial pressures to sponsor loved ones but is also competing against Hong Kongers fleeing Communist China and Ukrainians seeking protection from the Russian invasion.
Sudanese applicants “are not here in Canada waiting for their permanent residence status,” Kwan told the Toronto news conference. She projected it would take about 13 years to process all these Sudanese files.
“They’re in a war zone trying to get to safety. The government needs to act with the commensurate urgency in bringing those families to safety.”
The Immigration Department said each pathway is processed separately, within the allocated spots in the immigration levels plan, and applicants are not ranked against other nationalities or programs. Officials continue to prioritize the processing of applications in the system, including individuals who are still in Sudan and in surrounding regions, it added.
In addition to the humanitarian pathway, it said Canada is going to resettle up to 4,000 Sudanese government-assisted refugees by the end of 2026, and an additional 700 Sudanese refugees through sponsorship by community groups.
“Canada remains deeply concerned by the ongoing conflict in Sudan and empathizes with those in this extremely difficult situation,” the department said in a statement.
Fagir’s son, El Bagir Abdulkarim, said he paid $10,000 in government fees and legal costs for his mother’s application and sent over $15,000 more to keep her in a safe house in Egypt, while waiting for an immigration decision that never came.
“If she had been processed in a fair and timely manner, she would have been here for a year with us safely in Canada and not alone in uncertainty,” noted the Wellington County resident.
Dalal Elbuluk said the humanitarian pathway gave her father a glimmer of hope, but his health started deteriorating while waiting for resettlement. When a letter for an immigration medical exam finally came, he was in hospital.
“The pain of knowing that we left him behind, buried away from his loved ones, is something that never leaves us,” she said.
The Immigration Department said more than 15,380 people affected by the Sudanese war have been approved for permanent residence, with another 5,400 people approved for temporary residence. To date, 2,240 people have arrived in Canada under the family-based permanent residence pathway.
