OTTAWA — Europe is facing a massive new migration crisis because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Canada should prepare to provide asylum to those fleeing the violence, says a Canadian security expert.
“This would be a chance for Canada to really, really step up to the plate,” said Michael Bociurkiw, a Canadian in Ukraine who served as the spokesman for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe during the height of tensions following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
“Telling Ukrainians: you are welcome in Canada. And, you know, easing of visa rules, temporary stays, that sort of thing.”
Canada has promised to prioritize immigration applications from Ukraine to bring people fleeing the country to safety as quickly as possible.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced the creation of a new hotline Thursday, “for anyone at home or abroad with urgent Ukraine-related immigration questions.”
“We have worked over the past many weeks to prepare exactly for such eventualities,” the prime minister said in a sombre address Thursday.
Bociurkiw spoke Thursday from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where the day started quietly with an orderly procession of local residents lining up at ATM machines and stocking up on supplies at shops before giving way the blast of air raid sirens and “organized panic.”
Public address announcements told people to shelter in place and turn off their gas connections.
Bociurkiw watched a half dozen or so vehicles bearing the last Canadian diplomats depart for the Polish border after they had recently moved there from the capital Kyiv, which faced heavy bombardment.
Bociurkiw said Western diplomats he spoke to expressed fears that the region could be under threat from columns on Russian tanks in Belarus, so he understood the calculation to leave.
