‘We are buying our family members’ lives’: How a Calgary man rescued his family from Gaza

Tamer Jarada says he couldn’t believe it when he first heard his sister-in-law and her son had made it safely out of Gaza.

“Once they left it was a joyful moment for my wife and for me and even our kids because they really miss their cousin,” Jarada said.

Aasma Almasri, 27, and her five-year-old son Yousef arrived in Cairo on March 28. They were the first of 17 family members that Jarada, a Palestinian Canadian living in Calgary, is trying to bring to Canada under Ottawa’s special temporary visa program.

On April 4, Jarada’s sister Ashjan AbuRabee and her four children, ages two months to 14 years, made it safely out of Gaza as well. Her first phone call from Egypt with her brother was emotional.

“It was full of screams, laughs and we also cried a lot because we just remembered our late family members who are not around anymore,” Jarada recalled.

In late October, Jarada and AbuRabee lost their parents, two sisters and 13 other family members in an Israeli air strike. Since then, Jarada has been trying to bring his surviving family members to Canada. In January, the Canadian government opened a pathway for Canadian citizens and permanent residents to obtain visas for extended family members in Gaza but the process soon stalled.

Last month, the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship called the program a failure.

“This is a program we knew from the get-go could be a failure, up to now it is a failure and it’s something we need to recognize,” Marc Miller told Global News on March 20.

Under the program, once visa applicants receive initial approval they must travel to Cairo, Egypt to submit biometric data, including their fingerprints and photos. Citizenship and Immigration Canada says getting applicants out of Gaza has been difficult.

“Movement out of Gaza remains limited and unpredictable,” a spokesperson said in an email to Global News. “We have put forward names of people who passed preliminary eligibility and admissibility reviews to local authorities for approval, however, Canada does not control who or when someone can exit Gaza.”

It’s why Palestinian Canadian families, like the Jaradas, are turning elsewhere for help.

“It’s a very complicated process that involves an Egyptian operative who has the authority to put names on one of the lists (of people approved to cross) at the Rafah (border) crossing points,” Jarada said.

The process is also pricey. Jarada says he has borrowed or raised $69,000 so far to facilitate the exit of 10 relatives from Gaza.

“I have no option but to get this money ready,” he said. “We are buying our family members’ lives.”

As of April 8, the government says 108 people who have exited Gaza without facilitation from Canada have been approved to come to Canada.

Jarada’s 10 family members in Egypt are now working to complete their visa applications, as Jarada works to bring his remaining seven loved ones to safety.

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