Canada: No Visas for Ebola Countries

Canada announced Friday it will not grant visas to residents of West African countries that currently have cases of Ebola. No student, worker, or visitor-class visas from these countries will be issued, nor will any pending permanent-residency visas. This week, Australia announced it would stop issuing visas to people from countries struggling with Ebola. Although the spokesman for Canada’s minister of citizenship and immigration said the ban is less restrictive than Australia’s, the World Health Organization and public-health experts still criticized the move. “There isn’t a public-health or scientific justification for what Australia and Canada are doing. Therefore they are in violation of their obligations under the international health regulations,” said international-law professor David Fidler.