May I just jump in quickly? We had two cases in the last year in a source country. Because of the death threats they were facing, it was an imminent risk and we tried to sponsor them to Canada. We were told by the post that it couldn't move fast enough so they had better leave, and that they could not exit from a source country. They were told to go to a neighbouring country and wait it out.
On February 1st, 2007. See this statement in context.