MONTREAL — Charter flights should be set up to bring Ukrainians to Canada. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced on Saturday that the federal government was finalizing details with the airlines.
Among the additional measures for people fleeing the war in Ukraine: income support of $ 500 per week can be provided for six weeks for those who need it, said Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.
Temporary hotel rooms may also be offered for a period of two weeks.
According to the ministers, these measures, in addition to facilitating the arrival of Ukrainians in Canada, will relieve the European countries which already host a large number of refugees.
“Work is underway and we are finalizing the details as to the number of charter flights and where they will go,” said Mr. Alghabra, who hopes to make the announcement in the coming days.
These measures will apply to Ukrainians arriving in the country on the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (CUATU).
According to Minister Fraser, the challenge of setting up charter flights also comes from the fact that Ukrainians, once the request for AVUCU has been made, can continue to travel in Europe. “We are facing an unprecedented situation, it is not as if we had a refugee camp next to an airport with thousands of people waiting to board a plane,” he explained.
In addition, Canada has improved the processing of biometric data in several countries bordering Ukraine, according to Mr. Fraser. “We now have the capacity to process 19,000 appointments each week and we will continue to monitor these migration flows so that people can have timely access to appointments (for biometric data collection)”, a- he specified.
The Bloc Québécois spokesperson for Immigration, Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, was pleased that the government accepted his party’s proposal by entering into discussions with Canadian airlines.
“More than a month after proposing a large-scale operation to charter planes to bring Ukrainians fleeing the war to the country, we are pleased to learn that the federal government will go ahead with our proposal. We have been carrying this idea of an “air bridge” for six weeks now, with the sole concern of being in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, mothers and children who are currently going through unbearable hardships”, declared Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe in a communicated.
AVUCU allows Ukrainians to stay in Canada for three years and obtain a temporary work permit or a study permit.
Canada has already approved more than 30,000 applications from people wishing to come to the country under this program. About 12,000 of them have already arrived, according to Minister Fraser’s parliamentary secretary, Marie-France Lalonde, who insisted that these are “approximate figures”.
“At the beginning, in January, we increased the measures and it was about 8000 people who came to Canada (before AVUCU). To know where exactly… They already had links, friends, ”also explained Ms. Lalonde.
In order to ensure better follow-up with refugees, since April 1, airport service points have made it possible to collect more information on the interprovincial movements of Ukrainians arriving in Canada, explained the parliamentary secretary.
Additional humanitarian support
At the “Acting for Ukraine” donor conference on Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $100 million in additional humanitarian support in response to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and the neighboring countries.
These amounts are in addition to those paid since January to support emergency and essential health services. Some $245 million in total was paid by Ottawa.
Mr. Trudeau was taking part virtually in an event of the international advocacy organization Global Citizen with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda.
“We have raised over $12.4 billion in contributions to continue supporting Ukrainians displaced by President Putin’s sustained and unjustifiable war. Whether it’s food, water, shelter or medical help, we’ll be there for you and get you the help you need,” the Prime Minister said.
Several celebrities have announced their support, including Celine Dion. “Please stand up for these refugees all over the world and offer all the financial support you can,” the singer called in a video message on Friday.
–
