Overview

• More than 70 Palestinian students with offers and scholarships at Canadian universities remain stranded because they cannot complete mandatory biometric requirements.
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has no diplomatic presence in Gaza, forcing applicants into perilous exit attempts to submit fingerprints and photographs.
• Two twin sisters accepted to a University of Waterloo PhD program were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in December 2024.
• About one third of the accepted students have reached Egypt but continue to await visa approvals under lengthy security screening processes.
• Canadian academics and the Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Network are urging Ottawa to adopt procedures modeled on France’s to expedite permits and protect these scholars.