Immigrants who failed to declare the existence of a lost family member when they first came to Canada will now get a chance to bring them here under a new two-year pilot project.
The initiative, that begins in September, was one of several announced by Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen on Friday aimed at promoting family reunification and protecting migrants from abuse and violence.
“Newcomers who failed to declare immediate family members as they first came to Canada were barred to sponsor them (later),” said Hussen at a Canadian Bar Association conference in Winnipeg. “Today, we right that wrong.”
Advocates for migrants have long complained that the existing policy creates hardship for refugees to reunite with family members lost during war, violence or natural disasters such as a typhoon, or for migrants who failed to disclose the existence of children they initially didn’t know were theirs.
“The bar had constantly pled with each government to address this issue. This had been a cruel law and finally somebody listened,” said Marina Sedai, chair of the bar association’s immigration law section. “This is the right thing to do.”
The two-year pilot project will be launched Sept. 9 and sponsorship applications for previously undeclared family members that are already underway will be processed under the new rules.