Syrian boy in Saskatoon separated from parents for 5 years faces more reunion delays

Nine-year-old Adnan Kharsaloves his new life in Saskatoon, but the Syrian refugee yearns for the day he will be reunited with his parents. He has not seen them in person in five years.

"I would keep hugging them," he said."I miss them lots."

The Grade 4 student liveswith his grandmother and uncle in Canada, while his parents are stuck in Turkey with his three-year-old sister, Sham, who he's only seen on video chat.

The family's separation exemplifies theharsh reality of fleeing a war-torn country and navigatingan immigration and refugee systembogged down by a largevolume of applications andprocessing delays.

The federal department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reported a backlog of 1.8 million immigration applications, including 158,778 refugee applications, as of Feb. 1. It hasn't accepted any private sponsorship applicationswhere Canadian organizationsor groups provide support and basic living expensesto resettle refugees so far this year.

In contrast, Ottawa created anemergency immigration program forUkrainians affected by war that treats them differently from refugees and allows them to arrive in Canada within a matter of weeks of their application.

"We've not even been permitted to put in any [private sponsorship] applications in the first four months of this year," said Mark Bigland-Pritchard, a resettlement co-ordinator with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a faith-based agency involved inrelief and development efforts. "It's frustrating."

MCC has an agreement with the Canadian government to privately sponsor about 500 refugees a year. It expects toresume applications next month since the IRCChas said it will allow at least 25 applications per sponsorship agreement holder in earlyMay.

Even then, the average processing time is three years after an application is submitted, Bigland-Pritchard said.

Sound of bombs

Adnan last lived with his parents Mohammed Manhal Kharsa and Yasmine Sheikho in the coastal city of Jableh, Syria, in 2017.

He has few memories of that time, although he vaguely remembers his dad chatting withsome soldiers and then hoisting himup on a tank.

By the end of 2017, more than 13 million Syrians hadbeen forced to flee or displaced internally by the uprising againstPresident Bashar al-Assad, with children among those bearing the brunt of the violence, according to UNICEF.

The sound of bombing scared then four-year-oldAdnan so muchthat hisparents sent him on atrip to Malaysia with his grandmother, whoplanned to see two of her other children andseek medical treatment,said his aunt, Doha Kharsa, who is spearheading efforts to bring his parents into Canada.

A few days after theyleft on the trip, Adnan's parents fled to Turkey without passports or much money to avoid being recruited by the army, said Kharsa.

They haven't seen their sonsince.

"It's devastating," said Kharsa. "Every time [Adnan's parents] call him, they would cry. And just patiently waiting to reunite with their son."

Urgent cases

Kharsa, who arrived in Canada as a government-sponsored refugee in 2014, has privately sponsored several of her siblings and their families with money raised by aSaskatoon group called Moms for Refugees. MCCsubmits the applications to the government and provides services to refugees on arrival.

With COVID-19causing delays, it took Kharsafour years to get Adnan, his grandmotherand uncle to Canada from Malaysia, where they had been stuck in limbo. They arrived in May last year.

She then was able to switch her focus to Adnan's parents. The application and $30,000in fundswere ready in December, but MCC hasn't been allowed to submit the paperwork to Ottawa.

The Kharsas are lucky to even be on MCC'sapproved list. In Saskatchewan alone, MCC has applications to sponsor 900 individuals buthistorically has only been allotted 65 spots for the year.

"I have to say 'no' to a lot of people and that is deeply, deeply frustrating," said Bigland-Pritchard. "Every case is urgent. We have people who have serious illness, people who've been attacked. We have people who are in danger zones."

Adnan's aunt had hoped that reuniting a minor with his parents could be fast-tracked in some way.

"I was hoping it would be easier, that they would consider a young boy, without his parentsthe separation, the humanity," she said. "But no, it's not like that I was a bit disappointed."

'Mindboggling backlog'

The IRCCdid not comment on Adnan's case specifically, but told CBC News: "Family reunification is a long-standing pillar in Canada'simmigrationsystem and IRCC is committed to resettling families together, where possible."

Lou Janssen Dangzalan isan immigration lawyer in Toronto who helps clients submit paperwork for private sponsorship. He is not involved in Adnan's case but saysit should be expedited so the child is not separated from his parents during hisformative years.

Still, Dangzalansaid Ottawa is dealing with a "mindboggling backlog" due to a "perfect storm" of global crises and pandemic-related slowdowns.

He said the field office in Ankara, Turkey, is struggling to conduct a huge volume of background checks, interviews, and medical exams for applicants from countries where Canada doesn't have offices, such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria.

"I don't think it's acceptable at this point that there are still these delays," saidDangzalan."It boils down to political commitment. Are the resources actually being provided to these offices in order to actually process backlogged applications?"

The speed at which war-affected Ukrainians have made it to Canada under a special set of streamlined rules proves to Omer Khayyam, an immigration lawyer in Saskatoon, that political will and public relations determine which cases are prioritized.

"It is unfair to other refugees, in a sense, because they have to follow [regular] procedures, and they've been patient, and they've been waiting in these refugee camps for a number of years," he said.

Adnan'shope

Khayyam wants the system to be more consistent and morefocused on children.

"We don't want children to suffer," he said.

Adnan says he is staying hopeful while he waits. He has let his hair grow longer than usualbecause his father, a barber, has promised to cut it when he arrives in Canada and he wants to be ready.

While chatting with his father via video, Adnanasked his father in Arabicabout the first thing he would do if he makes itto Canada.

Then the boy smiled and shared with the CBC News crew his father's response:"He's going to hug me and cry. He's going to be so happy."

WATCH|Adnan Kharsa waits to be reunited with his family:

Syrian boy still waiting to be reunited with family as immigration backlog grows

3 years ago

Duration 2:02

A young Syrian refugee now living in Saskatchewan hasnt seen his parents for almost five years, and it could be much longer before theyre reunited because of a growing backlog of applications in Canadas immigration and refugee system.