By Canadian Press

Visa issues exclude Indigenous voices from COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal

Dec 7, 2022 | 7:33 AM

OTTAWA — The COP15 conference on biodiversity loss is underway in Montreal, but hundreds of delegates from developing countries are missing out due to visa issues.

This past summer, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada caused an uproar when it denied visas for multiple African delegates for the International AIDS Conference, also held in Montreal.

The department said it had procedures in place to make sure this month’s UN summit goes smoothly, such as issuing special codes for delegates to get fast-tracked visas.

But environmental organizations say people in developing countries are telling them they have been denied, or their applications are still being processed as the conference gets underway. 

They say the problems are particularly affecting Indigenous people in countries ranging from Pakistan and Peru to Indonesia.

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Advocates say that leaves out the voices of people who are most impacted by the ongoing destruction of ecosystems.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2022.

The Canadian Press