When Meera Falyouna applied for a Canadian graduate program in December 2023, she was living in a tent.

Displaced by war, frequently without electricity or internet access, and unsure of what the next day would bring, the 26-year-old industrial engineering graduate from Gaza completed the application over several days — walking through rubble to find a signal so she could work on it.

Months later, Falyouna was accepted into the industrial engineering masters program at the University of Regina, with funding tied to a research project and a supervisor prepared to welcome her to Canada.

Nearly two years later, she’s still waiting in the war-torn region.

Biometrics — fingerprints and photographs required for Canadian visas — can only be collected outside Gaza, typically in Egypt or the West Bank.

Before the war, Palestinians regularly travelled through the Rafah crossing to complete the process in Egypt. But that route has remained closed for months, despite ongoing rumours that it may reopen.

  • Avid Amoeba
    5·
    19 days ago

    Israel has a serious problem on their hands in Gazans migrating to the west. These people won’t stay silent about what they endured once here. The anti-Israel advocacy would only intensify should a significant number of Palestinians arrive from Gaza. So I’m guessing that despite all the ethnic cleansing wet dreams, there’s a strategy to keep them in place. An increasingly smaller place. Increasing the concentration of Palestinians in that place.