Silence deafening for refugee seeking reunification with family

A mother of three who fled Burundi last year says she's heard nothing about her bid to bring her husband and young children here, despite a pledge by the Canadian government to speed up the family reunification process.

AnithaMahoro fled Burundi after hercousin, Burundian state TV reporterChristopheNkezabahizi, Nkezabahizi's wife and two children wereshot dead by police in 2015 asviolence flared overthe controversial re-election of President PierreNkurunziza.

EverydayI check the mail to see if I got some good news, and every day I'm disappointed.- AnithaMahoro

Mahoroended up in Ottawa in September 2016, but left her husband and threechildren behind in a refugee camp in Rwanda.

"We had a house, we used to be a regular family. One morning everything went away. Now I have nothingnot my husband, not my children. Everything changed in my life," saidMahoro.

Mahorois studying early childhood education at LaCitcollgialewhileworking part time in a daycare to be able to send money to her family in Rwanda.

"I would like to see them grow up safely in this country," she said.

Minister pledged to halve wait times

Last Decemberthen immigration minister JohnMcCallumpledged to reduce the processing period for family reunification applications from about two years to 12 months. Theone-year guarantee coveredapplications already in the queue, as well as new applications.

"This will be of direct benefit to the 64,000 spouses we will admit to Canada in the coming year," he said atthe time.

• Justin Trudeau promises to make family reunification easier for immigrants
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• Family reunification wait times for immigrants to be cut by half, John McCallum says

Mahorosubmitted her application to bring her husband andchildren to Canada in January, so it hasn't been a year yet.

But apart from a letter she received in March acknowledging receipt of her application, she's heardnothing from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

"It's just complete silence from immigration," she said. "EverydayI check the mail to see if I got some good news, and every day I'm disappointed."

Daily phone calls

Mahorosaid despite making daily calls for months, she has yetto speak with an immigration official about the status of her application.

"It puts people in a very difficult situation because there aren't many options," saidimmigration lawyerArghavanGerami.

Gerami said a temporary visitor's permit could reunite the family more quickly, but said immigration officials are unlikely to issue the document to a family that has already expressed an interest in movinghere permanently.

Pointing to Article 34 of the United Nations High Commissison for Refugees Convention, which calls on signatory countries includingCanada to expedite the naturalization of refugees,Gerami said IRCCneedsto make the reunification offamilies a priority.

"If you have someone from a war-torn country who's waiting to be reunited, they're in a greater urgency than someone coming from U.K., or France, or somewhere else."

"I am grateful that Canada has accepted me as a refugee and protected me, but now I can't help but think about what might happen to ...my family," Mahorosaid.

Friday afternoon, an IRCC spokesperson said applications for permanent residence typically take two years to process.

The spokesperson said Mahoro's application to bring her family members to Canada would be processed in tandem with that permanent residence application.

She said submissions indicating a request for expediting processing in an exceptional circumstance are considered on a case-by-case basis.

"Typically, as a matter of fairness to applicants in the queue and as a general policy which is applied to all immigration streams, we generally process applications on a first-in, first-out basis," said Faith St-John.