Minister said ‘hundreds’ of Canadians might use Gaza visa. More than 7,500 applied.

Not an easy environment in which to make accurate estimates but still striking:

More than 7,500 Canadians signed up in the first three months of the year to get family out of Gaza through a federal visa pathway that lawyers have described as onerous, chaotic and nearly impossible to complete….

…The data show Canadians filed 7,549 initial applications, or statutory declarations, to obtain temporary visas for their family members from the day the program opened on Jan. 9 through April 1.

When Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced his department’s plans to launch the family reunification program in December, he told a news conference he expected the number of people who might benefit would be “in the hundreds.”

From those 7,549 declarations filed, just 179 visas had been issued as of April 29, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada….

Source: Minister said ‘hundreds’ of Canadians might use Gaza visa. More than 7,500 applied.