Canada allows Ukrainian refugees to stay for three years

Canada has designed a system with the potential to welcome millions of Ukrainians fleeing war to Canada, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said Thursday, as the government opened applications, Report informs via GlobalNews.

The program, which marks a major departure from Canada’s typical refugee policy, allows an unlimited number of approved Ukrainians to find refuge from Russian aggression in Canada for three years while they decide their next steps.

The allowed stay was extended to three years from two before applications opened. The government has also offered eligibility to family members of Ukrainian nationals, regardless of their own nationality.

The program is based on Canada’s tourism stream, which can accommodate more than two million visitors per year.

“This is the kind of thing that will allow us to adjust in response to increasing demands,” Fraser said in an interview.

It’s hard to predict what the uptake will be, since many refugees have said they want to remain close to their country to wait out the outcome of the war. Fraser’s best guess so far is that there will be tens of thousands of applications.

So far 9,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada since January, after their applications were expedited.

In an email to Global News Thursday, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed that 3,368 Ukrainian nationals arrived in Canada between February 21 and March 13. The number includes Canadian permanent residents.

The government says more details about settlement plans for those people fleeing to Canada will be released soon, but so far have set up a job board where employers can post jobs available to the temporary refugees.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says three million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s attack on the country began, and the vast majority are women, children and older adults.

That’s a million more than UNHCR initially predicted.