Ottawa urged to grant visas for Palestinian students by educators
In Gaza, the dreams of Palestinian students like Meera Falyouna, who was accepted into the industrial engineering program at the University of Regina, remain unfulfilled. Her visa application, like many others, is still pending due to the inability to provide necessary biometric data, a requirement that can only be completed after leaving Gaza.
Falyouna is not alone. Ayman Oweida, president of the Network of Endangered Palestinian Students and Researchers, has a student who was supposed to collaborate with him on a project stuck in Gaza for a year. Another student, destined to work with Professor Shafer, has been held back for eight months.
The Rafah border crossing to Egypt has been closed since May 2024, leaving approximately one-third of the students admitted by Canadian universities stranded there, still awaiting visa processing. Two Palestinian sisters, accepted into a Canadian university, were killed in an airstrike in Gaza in December.
The Canadian branch of the network has reached out to MPs to try to resolve the issue, but to no avail. A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) did not comment on Falyouna's case specifically, but stated that biometric data can only be completed after leaving Gaza.
Falyouna, like many others, wants to be treated like students from at-risk countries such as Ukraine and Syria. She aspires to be a future engineer, professor, or doctor in Canada and contribute to the reconstruction of the Palestinian university system.
The Network of Endangered Palestinian Students and Researchers has placed around 70 students in universities across Canada, many of whom received full scholarships. However, the delays in processing visas are putting these students' dreams at risk. Many are at risk of losing their spots due to deferral of admission requests.
A group of Canadian academics is urging the federal government to expedite the visa processing for Palestinian students. They argue that these students should be given the same support and fair treatment as students from at-risk countries. However, the federal government has not yet announced specific measures to speed up the process.
Raising awareness about the plight of these students through media and public campaigns is another approach being used to pressure authorities into taking action. Despite these efforts, concrete actions from the government to expedite the process are still awaited.
In the meantime, Falyouna and other students can only wait and try to survive. Falyouna and her family arrived in Egypt five days before the border closure. Now, 70 Palestinian students are awaiting visa processing in Egypt, their futures hanging in the balance. The student in Gaza, according to Professor Shafer, has lost weight due to severe food shortages.
The challenges in application processing, the need for more rigorous security and verification procedures, and limited access to resources in Gaza all contribute to the delays. As the world watches, the dreams of these students continue to linger, waiting for a chance to become reality.
French education-and-self-development opportunities are unattainable for many Palestinian students like Meera Falyouna, as political disputes and general news events surrounding the Gaza region hinder their visa applications. The delays in processing visas, discussed by the Network of Endangered Palestinian Students and Researchers and Canadian academics, put these students' dreams of education and self-development in various fields such as engineering, professorship, or medicine, at risk.
