Visa issues exclude Indigenous voices from COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal
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.
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Canada, right, shakes hands with Huang Runqiu, President, COP15 and Minister of Ecology and Environment of China following the opening news conference of COP15 the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Tuesday, December 6, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
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.
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 on Dec. 7, 2022
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