Canada promised temporary visas for 1,000 people trapped in Gaza. Zero have made it out

Canadian citizens and permanent residents with family members trapped in Gaza met privately with Immigration Minister Marc Miller this week to press for changes to the special immigration program they say has so far failed them.

«We're not asking him for the moon, we are asking him for adjustments that make complete sense,» said Omar Omar, a permanent resident in Vancouver who has 18 family members attempting to flee Gaza, in an interview with CBC News.

«They have to be on the table of telling us what exactly is happening and be fully transparent about who is putting the sticks in the wheels and why Canada is not capable of getting those people out.»

The Temporary Resident Visa program was announced in January in response to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The program promised to provide a maximum of 1,000 visas to extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

Nearly three months later, the program has failed to bring even one relative to Canada and family members here say the situation has become desperate.

«I had a call this morning with my sister in the northern part of the Gaza Strip,» Omar said this week. «Those people are surviving day to day trying to find food every day. I literally have calls from my family members saying that they are hungry.»

When the program was announced Miller said the new measures recognized the importance of «keeping families together given the ongoing crisis» in the region.

A month later he told reporters in a scrum that he is so far «pissed off» with its failure.

«I don't want to create a system that's entertaining false hope, but I also don't want to drop my arms and not try,» said Miller.

«It's really frustrating, and