Humanitarian Program: Venezuela and Ukraine!
These countries are more than alike from a Canadian perspective.
What's happening in Venezuela today is causing a lot of debate: legal/illegal, shock, confusion, how is this possible? What was that? But the Venezuelan situation is a textbook example of the humanitarian program that Canada has applied to its citizens many times before.
Warning: Ukraine could become the next page in this textbook!
For years, Canada has provided Venezuelan citizens with:
- Work permit extensions
- Legal residency extensions
- Access to humanitarian PR programs
- PRRA without standard restrictions (risk of returning to the country)
- Arguments of "impossibility of safe return"
The reasons were the following:
a dictatorial regime, repression, political and social collapse.
And so, a few days ago, the Maduro regime fell. and with it, the entire humanitarian foundation began to crumble.
Because in the Canadian understanding:
No regime → No automatic risk → No "special status."
All of this previously constituted country conditions. On these grounds, there were exemptions for Venezuelan citizens.
Now let's return to Ukraine:
Today, Ukraine for Canada means:
- war
- mass displacement
- temporary protection
- status extensions
- humanitarian arguments
- loyalty in H&C
- leniency in removals
CUAET, humanitarian approaches, deferments are here for one serious reason: there is a war, serious security concerns, and all the restrictions associated with the war.
If the war ends!
(ceasefire, freeze, peace—it doesn't matter):
- IRCC is ALWAYS reviewing country conditions
- humanitarian weight in files will decrease
- "War" will no longer be a universal argument
- Extensions will become more difficult
- H&C and PRRA will be assessed more strictly
- Temporary protection will no longer be temporary-permanent
This won't happen overnight, of course, but it will definitely begin to change.
The most dangerous mistake Venezuelan citizens (and, if the scenario repeats, Ukrainian citizens too) can make now is to live by the principle:
"Well, it's not tomorrow"
"Even if it ends, they won't touch us"
"Canada understands"
No.
Canada doesn't understand—it's updating its policies.
What should be done in such cases?
- Update the humanitarian files that are already in progress,
- Add new arguments why it's impossible to return, even if the war ends.
- Emphasis more on adaptation factors already in Canada, on WHAT you managed to acquire in Canada while waiting for the war to end,
- Emphasis that rebuilding a country takes many years, and even if there's no immediate threat of military action, the sky-high crime rate, the number of people with PTSD, and the virtually non-functioning economy—this is also an inhumane living environment, especially for children.
- The example of Venezuela clearly shows that the humanitarian program is a bridge to the PR, which is SUSPENDED! And it can be removed at any moment.
Respond to any changes promptly and appropriately!
Oleksandra Melnykova, Immigration and Refugee Consultant in Canada
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