The Canadian Press informed, at a prominent AIDS conference in Montreal, 15 percent of the guests who established Canadian visas ended up claiming asylum. The information also indicated refugees, immigration and citizenship Canada struggled to work with the international AIDS society as their efforts were to avoid a mass rejection of visas.
A large number of African delegates have never received feed back to their visa application or had been denied visas. Some say that Canada should be deprived of international gatherings, as they accuse Ottawa of racism on stage.
This controversy has not been an isolated event as in recent years similar events occurred at various global summits hosted in Canada, as certain delegated from Africa was denied visa despite holding invitations on Canadian government letterhead.
At last summer’s AIDS gathering 36 percent (1020 applications) of Visa applications were rejected, and a further 10 percent at the end of the event was found to be unprocessed, indicated in the documents gathered through access – to – information law.
Canada dispensed 1638 visas for the conference, and the figures indicate that a minimum of 15 percent or 251 individuals, after entering Canada claimed asylum.
Toronto immigration lawyer Robert Blanshay, informed, claiming asylum by appearing at a sports event or conference in Canada is one of the limited ways individuals can get to safety. Often the idea of refugee status only occurs to people after arriving in Canada by hearing about others doing so. He informed that Canada at present makes it tough to attain visa for genuine purposes.
If the applicant does not prove that they have sufficient reasons to stay in their country of residence, such as financial savings, family ties or stable job, visa applications are often denied.
Ottawa rejected 55.8% of visa applications from prospective conference attendees from Nigeria, 85.5% from Nepal, 40% from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo and 53,6% from Pakistan.
The immigration departments management of the conference was assessed by an internal report suggested that there is a need for ensuring that partners are engaged early on, better coordination of high-profile events and that they remain in continued, constant and detailed communication. The report indicated shortfalls within the department, such as a system hitch that made it problematic for applicants to indicate an event code that is used to establish event attendees in records.
