Global News

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced on Thursday that Canada is offering a path to permanent residency for the next year to the relatives of victims of two major recent air disasters: Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

Applicants must be a relative of a victim who was either a citizen, a permanent residence, or a foreign national with a positive eligibility decision on their permanent residence application at the time of the disaster. Mendicino said eligible relatives include spouses, common-law partners, children, grandchildren, mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, nieces, nephews, uncles and aunts of the victims.

Applicants must be in Canada when they apply.

All 176 people on board Flight PS752 -- including 55 Canadian citizens -- were killed on Jan. 8, 2020, after Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mistakenly downed the Ukrainian jetliner with two surface-to-air missiles.

In March 2019, 157 people were killed -- including 18 Canadians, when Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 plunged into a field in the African country. It was later revealed problems with the plane's automated system, which kicks in if sensors indicate that a plane is about to lose lift, had caused the plane to crash.