Non-citizens of Ukraine don't qualify for temporary refuge from war in Canada

The Canadian government is allowing Ukrainians who have fled Russian aggression to come to Canada temporarily for a period of two years 'for those who need a safe haven while the war ravages their homeland,' Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced last week, but the program is only available to Ukraine citizens.

Last week, she left the new life she had built for herself over the past six months in Ukraine with only that same backpack in hand. 

"I was so sleepless and tired and I was just looking for a way to get out of Lviv, to get to the border," she said. 

Afraid to spend what little money she had on food and exhausted after several sleepless nights, Tajik made her way to Poland with the help of volunteers, under the terrifying din of air-raid sirens. 

Her escape from Lviv, Ukraine to Warsaw, Poland bore ghastly similarities to her flight from her home in the Herat province of Afghanistan months earlier.