Canadians resort to desperate measures to get their families safely out of Gaza

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After months of waiting, Nasser Najjar lost faith in the Canadian government’s ability to evacuate his family from Gaza to safety in Egypt.

Najjar, who lives in Vancouver, is among a growing number of Palestinian Canadians who, in desperation, have turned to private travel companies that charge exorbitant fees to get their relatives out of Gaza.

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In January, when the Canadian government introduced special measures In order for Palestinian Canadians and permanent residents to bring their family members trapped in Gaza to Canada, Najjar applied to bring nine close family members, but none reached the approval stage.

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Applications were capped at 1,000 and the program has been widely criticized for failing to bring a single applicant to Canada.

Those who leave Canada without help may have better luck.

“I had to resort to Plan B,” Najjar said.

He raised nearly $30,000 to obtain travel documents through a Cairo-based company, Hala, so his relatives could escape.

On Friday he received the news: his parents, Khadijah and Mohammad, his sister, Razan, and their four cats, including one-eyed Bobo, successfully crossed the border into Egypt.

To get them out, Najjar liquidated all his assets, took three jobs, borrowed money and raised funds in the community and in GoFundMe get enough money to secure the trip, which was arranged by the private travel agency Hala.

Hala has operated as a “VIP” agency that organizes the passage of Palestinians in occupied Gaza to Egypt through the Egypt-Palestinian Rafah crossing. They came under scrutiny at the time for charging up to $1,200 a head to make departure arrangements. Prices have increased tenfold since the Israeli offensive began and fluctuated with demand, according to media reports.

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“It’s not the best solution, but it was the only practical solution,” Najjar said.

Coupled with the uncertainty of sending cash to brokers in Egypt, he had to make another agonizing decision. He had to choose which family members to save.

Najjar chose his parents because of their age (his father is not well) and his sister because she has no children and would be the best person to help the family if they arrived in Canada.

“The day I sent the money I almost collapsed. I don’t know if I can trust this person and I gave him all my life savings. You question everything. ‘Did I make the right decision?’ “

In early April, he received a receipt confirming that the money had been paid and that his relatives would be allowed to leave. But she didn’t know when.

Every day he checked the Telegram app to see if their names appeared on the daily list at the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Meanwhile, every day there are more bombs, more chaos, more death, more destruction, including an Israeli airstrike just 30 meters from where her family was sheltering that killed her relatives Sabreen Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant, her father and his three children. one year old daughter

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Wednesday, more bombs and a text message from his sister Razan: 4 explosions near where we stayed (the roof fell, the smoke drowned us).

Finally, on Thursday at 11 pm they received the news: their names were on the list to cross the border.

After an eight-hour wait on the Palestinian side and two hours in Egypt while authorities verified their identities with Israeli authorities, he received word that they were done.

He feels relieved and grateful to the friends and strangers who helped him raise funds.

“As a community we demonstrated our humanity and were able to do what the Canadian government could not do,” Najjar said.

Although 986 applications have been “processed” under the Canadian government’s special program, said Matthew Krupovich, a spokesman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, none have been finalized and none have arrived in Canada. Krupovich cited difficulties in processing biometric data in Gaza and helping applicants leave the region.

However, as of April 22, 153 applicants had left Gaza “without Canada’s facilitation,” Krupovich said. These applicants will be issued a TRV (temporary resident visa) and will be able to come and travel to Canada “at their discretion,” he said.

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That’s what Najjar plans to do once his family is safe in Cairo.

He also plans to help buy tickets for his remaining family members, including his sister Lina, a doctor, and his 11-year-old niece Judy. She fears for her safety: “If something happens now, while we wait… it would be devastating.”

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