Immigration department has new minister but old problems of delays continue

Canada's new immigration minister is inheriting a backed-up system, with many families separated and refugees stranded overseas.

Marc Miller, the country's fifth minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in almost eight years of the Liberal government, sat down for his first TV interview last week with CBC News to discuss the ongoing problems.

He said refugee applications should be processed quickly and the system needs modernization.

"It's fair to say, in some respects, the way we do the actual day-to-day operations of immigration and refugee and citizenship applications has not adapted to the 21st century," he said.

"If there is probably one regret we can formulate going back to 2015, is some of those system changes where systems are archaic going back to the 1960s investments probably should have been made at the outset."

Miller said there is an ongoing influx of demand on the system, and some difficult choices would have to be made to address the backlog. He said the department has doubled its capacity to deal with individual files in the past year, but there is a still a lot of work to be done.

"The need of people to access their files and, over the last year, we've been trying to tweak that. We are not there yet," he said.

'There's no time frame'

For Abdulsalam Abo Alshamat, who works in Regina to resettle newcomers, the backlog has meant a one-year wait to bring his mother to Canada has turned into nearly two years, and counting.

Alshamat and his family fled the violence in Syria, getting to Malaysia where they were refugees for nine years before making their way to Canada in 2021. However, due to health reasons, his mother was in Turkey when they resettled.

His family applied under the one-year window of opportunity program to bring his mother to Canada, but they are still waiting.

"We don't know how much longer it would take. I check the government website. I check with MPs, immigration lawyers, but nobody can tell you what's the maximum it can take. There's no time frame."

Alshamat's 69-year-old father applied for a Canadian travel document in July 2022 to visit his wife. The processing time was supposed to be the same as for a passport, 20 days, but it has been a year.

In March, they applied again, after seeing that newer applications are being addressed first.

"It's a tiring process just to apply for it, but waiting endlessly without any way of tracking is really stressful. It makes us stay in a state of anxiety and uncertainty," Alshamat said.

"It's not a first-come, first-serve basis. It's so ambiguous and unfair. It's just a one-way conversation with IRCC. It's frustrating."

'We are still waiting'

Beverly Ford, who lives about 300 kilometres north of Regina in Star City, is in a similar boat. Ford and her family came to Canada from Trinidad and Tobago in February 2019, but she could not bring her eldest daughter, who had turned 19.

In 2020, the family applied for permanent residence in hopes of being reunited with her daughter. Ford said the processing time then was 18 months..

"Now, it has been more than three years since I saw my daughter and we are still waiting. It's been that long since we have been in the same room," she said.

"We've never ever been separated like this, ever in our family history. This has been a hard pill to swallow. It's difficult to hear your child on the other side of the phone asking, 'When, when?' and all you could say is, 'We have to wait.' "

Jailed in Indonesia

Ghassan Abusawawin, who escaped the horrors of Gaza in 2015 and spent several years as what he describes as "stateless," applied to Canada in May 2020, with sponsorship from the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa and a group from the U.S.

But since he last spoke with CBC News in July 2022, when IRCC's backlog was at 2.4 million applications, his situation has worsened. Abusawawin is now in a jail in Jakarta, Indonesia, after he says he was framed for extortion.

"My accuser, a former friend, is demanding close to $90,0000 to rescind the accusation as they think my sponsors have deep pockets," he said.

CBC spoke with Abusawawin's sponsors who confirm that in the past trials, no evidence against him was presented.

Had IRCC processed his application sooner, Abusawawin said, he would already be in Canada and not trapped.

"Now, my application is postponed till next December," he said.

Policy stability needed: lawyer

Lou Janssen Dangzalan, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, said the evergreen problem of processing delays should be on Miller's radar. He hopes Miller can involve all the stakeholders.

"Almost eight years into Prime Minister Trudeau's tenure at the office, we still have the same headline issues. I don't think that will change unless there is policy stability," he said.

"There has not been a cogent and unified thinking about immigration. The parade of ministers speaks volumes as to how much of a revolving door this particular file appears to be to the PMO."

Dangzalan said while modernization tools are needed, they should not replicate the inherent biases and racism around quality of decisions.

"Old biases born out of human systems get embedded in the data. I have very little trust in the system such as advanced analytics and it's not just me but many other members of the bar," he said.

Dangzalan said the department should let go of its patterns of being selective about its refugee admissions.

"Hopefully Minister Miller can inject some fresh energy into the system."

WATCH|Canada still has immigration backlogs, we asked Marc Miller what he plans to do about it:

Canada still has immigration backlogs, we asked Marc Miller what he plans to do about it

1 year ago

Duration 2:39

Huge backlogs in immigration and refugee applications have caused headaches and heartaches for Saskatchewan families looking to reunite.