SAN FRANCISCO — After a five-month delay, the Canadian government responded to questions from a Toronto newspaper about special immigration measures enacted a year ago to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan.
“Approximately 1,540 Filipinos entered Canada as a result of the special measure . . . as of October 2014,” a Citizenship and Immigration spokesman said October 16 in an emailed statement to the Toronto Star https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/10/16/1540_filipinos_came_after_typhoon_ottawa_now_says.html .
Another 269 applications were rejected and 519 cases are still being processed nearly one year after the typhoon decimated the Philippine city of Tacloban and neighboring villages on November 8, 2013.
The fast-tracking program announced in the days after the disaster was supposed to provide “immediate” relief to people in need, Minister Chris Alexander said at the time.
The government’s response came after the Star published an open letter to the minister, a segment aired on CBC Radio’s As it Happens and the long-standing questions were posed during a scheduled Q&A with Alexander on Twitter.
According to the Star, the department could not immediately provide answers to follow-up questions from the newspaper, including how many of the 1,540 Filipinos who “entered Canada” through the special measures were typhoon victims and how many remain in Canada today.