Sudanese Canadians decry delays in bringing their family members to safety

This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.

For more than a year and a half, Ismail Adam, 61, of Mississauga, Ont., has been seized with dread every time he receives a phone call. 

"You just hope the phone [call] is not from Sudan," he says, "because you don't want to hear the news." 

News out of the country these days is generally grim. Sudan is plagued by cascading tragedies: an ongoing internal military conflict, a growing risk of famine and an epidemic of sexual assault. Edem Wosornu of the United Nations called the situation a "crisis of staggering scale and cruelty." 

Adam's parents along with his older brother and younger sister have been caught in the crossfires of the ongoing conflict, forced to flee their home in the capital of Khartoum not long after fighting broke out between rival military groups in April 2023. 

"They got raided inside their own home," says Adam. "An armed group of people got in the house one day and demanded to be given gold and money." 

Since then they've been frequently on the move. They're among more than 12 million people in Sudan displaced by the war.

Adam wants desperately to bring them to safety in Canada, as they've been in peril for nearly two years. Despite applying last year for a Canadian government program meant to bring citizens' families here, he has not heard back. He fears for the worst, and feels that racism could play a part in it.

"When it comes to Sudan, it feels like they don't care," says Adam. "I don't know if compassion has colour, but it seems like that to me."

Tens of thousands of people have already died in Sudan due to the conflict. According to the United Nations, half of Sudan's population — nearly 25 million people — are "experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity."

In February 2024, the Canadian government launched a family-based pathway program meant to bring in families of Canadian citizens or permanent residents from Sudan. Applications were capped at 3,250, which was reached by early May. 

Adam applied the first day he could, but says he hasn't received a response.

His experience is far from unique. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, nearly 11 months after the pathway program was launched, only 340 people have been approved to come to Canada.

Nagwa El Mamoun, an immigration consultant in Oakville, Ont., says she was initially very pleased with the program's promise.