Latest news with #familyreunification
CTV News
15 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Alberta concerned over Ottawa plan to accept newcomer parents, grandparents this year
The Alberta legislature can be seen in Edmonton, Alberta. (CTV News Edmonton) Alberta's immigration minister says he's concerned about the federal government's plan this year to accept thousands of parents and grandparents of immigrants who are already in Canada. Joseph Schow says he understands the importance of reuniting families, but that provincial health-care systems don't have the capacity and could be overwhelmed. This year Ottawa plans to approve just over 24,000 parents and grandparents of newcomers this year before reducing its target for the next two years. Schow says provinces should have more say on immigration targets and that overall immigration should be reduced to no more than half a million people per year. He says Alberta and other provinces should also be more involved in determining which immigrants they accept. Federal Immigration Minister Lena Diab's office says the government is committed to reuniting as many families as possible and that this immigration stream has social, cultural and economic benefits. Schow's comments come as a provincial panel currently touring Alberta has heard from citizens on a number of topics, including whether some newcomers should be entitled to social services like health care. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2025. Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
CBC
17-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Hamiltonians call on Canada to help their families in Gaza
Rani Hemaid and Mahmoud Fares of Hamilton say they've been waiting to learn if their family members in Gaza can come to Canada under a special reunification program for Palestinian families. As of July 8, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says more than 1,750 people who exited Gaza and passed security screenings have been approved to come to Canada. Of those, 864 people have arrived in Canada from Gaza on temporary resident visas. The agency says it's challenging to get people out of Gaza in part because Canada cannot control who is allowed to leave. Hemaid and Fares say Canada promised to help families like theirs and they want more action.
Fox News
16-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Santa Monica business owner offering one-way flights to get homeless out of California
A Santa Monica business owner has launched a grassroots initiative to address California's growing homelessness crisis, stepping in where he says city and Los Angeles County leaders have failed to act. Roughly three weeks ago, Santa Monica property owner John Alle and fellow business owners in the southern California city hatched a plan to help reduce homelessness on their streets, through a targeted and voluntary family reunification program. Their goal is to assist individuals who have been homeless for less than a year and are actively seeking help, by reuniting them with loved ones in their hometowns — where they're more likely to get the support they need to succeed. Through the nonprofit Alle co-founded, the Santa Monica Coalition, a small group of local donors personally fund travel expenses for these trips. They've also implemented an AI-powered hotline to efficiently handle the flood of incoming requests. Since the program's launch in June, the hotline has received over 500 calls, and they've completed the reunification process for eight people so far, according to Alle. "I think it's a scalable solution that'll work over and over because there's motivation," Alle told Fox News Digital. "And this is valuable as an asset when cities and counties are desperate for fixes right now and spending way too much with no results and missing funds." Alle shared videos of two people boarding trains and planes to their homes in Pennsylvania and Wyoming this week through the program. They talked about feeling unsafe living in California and wanting to reunite with their families. Alle hopes to eventually transition the project to a nonprofit organization that is equally committed to the reunification model. He believes the simple strategy is going to have a bigger impact than "housing and other expensive, frankly, go-nowhere methods that are being tried and have been tried over the last three or four years" by the local government. "The homelessness and the crime is increasing at the same rate as the increase in funding. And that's not a good sign. It shows it's not working," he said. Alle said the program isn't intended to help everyone, but it is one step in the right direction. "There's different levels of homelessness," Alle said. "There's mentally ill people who need drastic help, institutional help, that we're not equipped to help. And there are drug addicts, alcohol addicted, that need help with special programs. Our program is focused on those that have been here for less than a year, and they're motivated. They're contacting us." Participation in the program is open to anyone who meets a few key criteria. Candidates must have identification to travel through the airport, and a family member or friend must commit to receiving them upon arrival. Alle's team personally verifies these arrangements with family beforehand to confirm their willingness and capability. Each participant must also sign a waiver agreeing that they are going along with the program of their own accord. Alle says the county and city's solutions aren't helping the situation and have made the tourist destination a hotbed for violent crime and homelessness. "Our city has been taken over by the mentally ill and addicted who desperately need help," the Santa Monica Coalition says in a flyer on their website telling people to stay away from the city. "Sadly, many of them refuse shelter and services. The City Manager and City Leaders hide behind policy adoptions and limitations as their reasoning for not taking action towards resolving the human catastrophe at hand. Meanwhile, their lack of political will makes for everyone's loss." Santa Monica residents and business owners who make up the nonprofit are calling on city leaders to take action on the city's rising crime and homelessness. "We're really trying to push our city leaders, who have been ignoring the depravity on the streets, the crime, the theft, the homelessness that's not being addressed," Alle told Fox News Digital. The coalition filed a lawsuit against the LA County Public Health Department, its director, Barbara Ferrer and the Venice Family Clinic, last year over the county's needle distribution program to the homeless. Clean needles are handed out as part of the county's "harm reduction" effort, which also includes the overdose-reversal drug Naloxone. The LA County Health Department released a statement in 2024 defending the harm-reduction efforts, saying they are "well demonstrated to reduce overdose deaths, reduce the public use of injectable drugs, reduce transmission of communicable diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis), increase access to substance use services, reduce the use of emergency medical services, and increase public safety." Gangs are also a huge problem for business owners and residents' safety, Alle says. He shared photos of his properties vandalized by MS-13 and other cartels as recently as last week. But he says city officials have turned a blind eye to the problems plaguing Santa Monica. "It's gotten out of control," Alle described the situation. "We've got cartels — MS-13 and the 18th street gang, very active in that area. We have crews every day painting up their tagging because if we don't paint it over the next day, it becomes a competition and a source of friction among the other cartels over who controls the area." The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health told Fox News Digital that a proposed judgment had been entered in favor of LA County and Ferrer last month in LA County Superior Court regarding the needle distribution lawsuit filed by Alle and the Santa Monica Coalition against county officials. The Santa Monica City Council told Fox News Digital it already has a reunification program that it started in 2006. "The city of Santa Monica has a longstanding reunification program administered by our Homelessness Prevention & Intervention (HPI) Division called Project Homecoming. Project Homecoming was launched in 2006 and has reunited over 3200 individuals who are experiencing homelessness within the city of Santa Monica with family and friends living elsewhere. Individuals are identified by our trusted and professional partners who perform outreach within the city of Santa Monica on a daily basis," a spokesperson for the city said.
Al Jazeera
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
In Belgium, a mother fears for her children under Israel's bombs in Gaza
Every nook and corner of Rawan Alkatari's home in Aalst, a city in Belgium, is filled with pictures that remind her of her family in Gaza. 'People who come to visit my home say it is beautiful. But I'll see it as beautiful when it is filled with the sound of my children,' she said. The 30-year-old came to Belgium shortly before Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, having been granted asylum. But her husband Osama and three children – Lujayn, Lama and Omar, aged 14, 12 and eight, respectively – have been unable to join her, despite Belgium having approved their family reunification visas. 'My husband and children got their family reunification visas approved [by Belgium] on October 1, 2024, but remain stuck in Gaza. Their visas also expire in October this year,' she told Al Jazeera. 'Right now, my family's documents are at the Belgian embassy in Cairo in Egypt. Belgium says it has submitted their names for evacuation and is awaiting Israeli approval, while Israel says it hasn't received anything. So, who is responsible? I honestly don't know,' she said. Alkatari is being supported by an Israel-based organisation, which has contacted COGAT, the Israeli army's aid coordination agency, regarding her case. COGAT told the group in June that a request for her family's evacuation had not been received, she said, referring to emails seen by Al Jazeera. Alkatari's home in Gaza City has been destroyed. Her family has been displaced more than four times. They currently live in an overcrowded encampment in al-Mawasi in Gaza's Khan Younis. Israel had designated al-Mawasi as a humanitarian safe zone in December 2023, but has repeatedly attacked the area since then. 'Every day, bombs fall around their tents, and they watch people die. They are also living in a miserable tent with not enough food, no medicines and no safe bathrooms,' she said, adding that fever, hepatitis, and skin diseases are rampant in the camp. Rodents, weasels, and snakes crawl around as people sleep, she said. In Belgium, guilt-stricken and concerned about her family's plight, she struggles to eat or drink. 'My children beg me to eat. I went out once to get something to eat. I looked at the supermarket and thought, 'How am I going to eat when they're hungry?' My children no longer look the same when I speak to them over video calls. Their faces are pale and yellow from malnutrition. My husband has also aged so much. His hair and beard have turned completely white,' she said. Why are evacuations being delayed? The European Union allows asylum seekers who have been granted international protection in any member state to bring their spouse, children and certain other family members under the bloc's Family Reunification Directive. In Belgium, one in four visas were given to members of a refugee's family last year, local broadcaster VRT NWS reported in January. Refugee family reunification visas increased to 5,714 in 2024 from 3,700 in 2023. But for refugees from Gaza, Belgium can 'only provide consular assistance and register on an evacuation list Belgians and foreigners who have a refugee status in Belgium, as well as the members of their nuclear family', according to the Immigration Department. Alkatari is not convinced. 'Some families I know have also left for other countries via the Kerem Shalom [crossing] in Israel. So there are options, but there seems to be a clear failure to care for us,' she said, adding that the cases she has heard of include families with Belgian visas and some who have reached other European countries on medical evacuations. Nearby, 37 people arrived in France on July 11; the French Foreign Ministry said that since January 2025, 292 people from Gaza have been evacuated to the country that borders Belgium. In early June, in an effort to put pressure on Belgian authorities, Alkatari went on a three-week hunger strike protest outside Belgium's Foreign Ministry in Brussels. Several hundred Palestinian families in Gaza waiting to be evacuated to Belgium are stuck in a similar situation, according to local media reports. In June, a group of lawyers condemned the delay in an open letter published by the Belgian daily La Libre Belgique, addressed to Prime Minister Bart De Wever and Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot. 'The Belgian government continues in fact to do everything in its power to prevent men, women and children caught in the hell of Gaza from being able to join their family members in Belgium,' they said. Belgium rejects the accusations. Belgium has evacuated more than 500 people from Gaza, since the war began, via the Rafah border crossing bordering Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. This group includes Belgian citizens and Palestinians with Belgian refugee status and their lawful partners and children. 'These evacuations had to be halted in May 2024, when the Rafah border crossing was closed. It was not until March 2025 that evacuation operations could resume, this time through the border post of Kerem Shalom and Jordan. Since then, around 40 people have been evacuated,' the spokesperson told Al Jazeera. Israel closed the Rafah border crossing in May 2024, claiming that it was being used for 'terrorist purposes'. In January this year, the crossing was opened for medical evacuations. Belgium organised medical evacuations in July and December last year as part of a pan-European humanitarian mission, in coordination with the World Health Organization. The patients and caretakers were either evacuated from Egypt or directly from Gaza. In October 2024, Belgium's foreign minister said the rules had changed and only Belgians or their core family members would be eligible for evacuation. But this restriction ended last month, 'and preparations began for the resumption of evacuations that had been suspended in May 2024', the spokesperson added, giving no further details. Asked if Israel is delaying evacuations, the spokesperson said: 'A variety of factors continue to cause delays, but efforts are ongoing to find solutions, in close cooperation with all relevant authorities.' Al Jazeera contacted COGAT for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publishing. Bram Frouws, director of the Geneva-based Mixed Migration Centre, told Al Jazeera that European countries could create humanitarian channels, issue laissez-passer or emergency visas, and loosen the documentation requirements. 'It's not impossible, most countries have managed to get Palestinian people that hold dual citizenship of their countries out of Gaza, so with political will, there are possibilities,' he said. 'But I don't think there is much of that political will in the current political climate in most European countries.'
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Addictions centre accused of offering few services for $10K/month
Former workers, clients and advocates want to know why a family reunification centre in Brandon, Man., charges residents almost $10,000 a month to live in a converted motel room, with few services offered. They argue the fees charged at Aurora Reunification Village exploit First Nations communities and government agencies that foot the bill.
