MANILA - As part of its humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the devastation brought by super typhoon Yolanda, Canada is fast-tracking the processing for hundreds of survivors with pending immigration visa applications, Ambassador Neil Reeder said Thursday. “The embassy is working overtime to facilitate this (immigration visa applications)” following phone calls from those with families in the affected areas both here and in Canada, Reeder told reporters at a luncheon he hosted for the Department of Foreign Affairs press corps. “These immigration applications in process, we are pulling those files out and moving them up. So far, we’re talking several hundreds of cases where requirements have been met but were just in process. We give priority to these applications,” Reeder said. He said the embassy has pulled out the applications from Leyte, Samar, Panay, and northern Cebu, and have asked them if they wanted to advance their applications. “Some of them said are not ready to go, but others are quite happy with it,” Reeder said. Earlier, the Canadian government announced that it would prioritize the pending immigration application of those who were personally and significantly affected by the typhoon. The Citizenship and Immigration Canada in Manila has set up special email addresses and dedicated phone lines to respond to any request from applicants and their families. There are also trunk lines that applicants can use to tell the embassy that they were significantly and personally affected by Yolanda and wish to declare their cases a priority. For Canada, the Philippines is second only to China with the most number of visa applications. In 2012, the Canadian embassy here has issued 33,000 permanent resident visas (the second in the world), 8,292 temporary foreign worker visas (the seventh in the world), and 31,757 temporary resident or visitor visas. Tagalog in Canada “This flow of Filipinos to Canada has meant that Tagalog is now the fastest growing language group in Canada, and Filipnos are making their presence felt in cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver,” the ambassador said. “We are very proud of the many Canadians of Filipino origin who now live and work in our country, including the newly crowned Miss International, Bea Rose Santiago, who is based in Toronto, but was born and raised in Masbate province.” Aside from faster processing of visa applications for Yolanda survivors, Canada was also among the many countries that immediately responded with humanitarian aid to the affected provinces. Among its response: providing $20 million ($12 million to United Nations agencies and $8 million to international non-government organizations) to meet the needs of the affected; matching every dollar from private contributions with another dollar from the government of Canada, and extending this from 9 December to 23 December 2013. So far, Canadian citizens have donated $40 million to registered charities; deploying more than 300 members of the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to Iloilo and Capiz; 15 Filipino-Canadian military members have volunteered to help and they are spending Christmas with the survivors in Panay; clearing over 130 kilometers of damaged roads in Panay; providing 520,000 liters of clean water in Panay; deploying with the Canadian Red Cross a 15-member field hospital and medical team for emergency health support in Ormoc City; the hospital will remain until New Year; sending 16,000 blankets, 3,000 tents, 1.3 million water purification tablets, and 5,000 temporary shelters; this is good for 5,000 affected families for the period of three months; awarding P1-million grants to seven NGOs for relief and rehabilitation in Yolanda-affected communities; and allocating $25 million to the Central Emergency Relief Fund of the United Nations, making it the fifth largest country donor to the fund. Following the P8.17-billion call for Yolanda rehabilitation, the ambassador said that Canada, together with the rest of the international community that have rushed to the Philippines’ aid, is here for the long haul. “Yesterday, I was able to participate in the launch of the Philippine government’s Reconstruction Assistance Plan for Yolanda (RAY) where I made an assurance of Canada’s commitment to the recovery and reconstruction phase that lies ahead,” Reeder said. Source : InterAksyonThe online news portal of TV5 universalimmigration
Posted on: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 11:09:17 +0000