Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino insisted on Friday that Ottawa is developing a plan to help dozens of people facing Taliban Arrested or worse for cooperating with Canada, but he did not say when the plan will become a reality.
The federal government is under increasing pressure and needs to help dozens of former interpreters, translators and cultural advisers who helped Canada’s military and development work during the war. Afghanistan.
In particular, Canadian veterans are increasingly worried. They have noticed that the Taliban have made rapid progress in the past few weeks after most US troops suddenly withdrew from the country.
These veterans said that their former colleagues and their families are staying in the country, especially in the southern province of Kandahar, and the daily risk of torture or death is increasing.
Mendicino answered questions from reporters when announcing a new refugee plan to help people threatened by defending human rights, acknowledging that the situation in Afghanistan is “very urgent.”
He said: “Even in the past few weeks, I know that the situation has gotten worse and my life is at stake.”
“Everyone in the government is doing their best to try to finalize the plan so that we can put it into action.”
He added that immigration officials are currently working with the Canadian military and Canada’s Department of Global Affairs to identify Afghans who provide “necessary support” to Canada, including translators, interpreters and personnel working in the Kabul embassy.
The Taliban strengthened their control in Afghanistan because the organization occupied Pakistan’s border crossings
However, Mendicino did not give a timetable for when the help will actually arrive.
He said: “The most important thing I want to convey about this operation is that we know that the Afghans put their lives in danger while helping Canada in the war there, and we hope to do the right thing to them. Matter.” “We hope to have more to say about this in the near future.”
The chairman of the National Defense Association meeting and retired lieutenant General Guy Thibault expressed cautious optimism about the news that the work is going on. The meeting’s members include many retired military officers and diplomats.
Thibault acknowledged the challenge of reviewing and processing visas for those who helped Canada’s war efforts, while noting that the federal government was able to screen and reset 25,000 Syrian refugees within 100 days more than five years ago.
Thibault said in a statement: “Our common sacrifice cannot be forgotten, nor should we forget the people who helped us in this dangerous mission.”
“They are friends, allies and heroes. The risks they take deserve our greatest respect. Keeping them away from immediate danger is the least we can do. We urge the Prime Minister and his government to act quickly and decisively.”
Three retired major generals who commanded Canadian forces in Afghanistan said that 115 people in Afghanistan need help.
Retired Corporal Tim Lederer, who served in Afghanistan in 2008 and is currently the executive director of the Institute of Veterans Education and Transition at the University of British Columbia, said that Ottawa should restart a previous program to help Afghans.
Although more than 800 Afghan interpreters and their families resettled in Canada in 2009 and 2012 under the plan, Lederer said many others wanted to stay in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country.
Lederer, who ran for the Conservative Party in the 2015 federal election, said that he and other veterans are now in touch with many former Afghan colleagues who have received death threats from the Taliban but have nowhere to escape.
“These interpreters are a very special and unique group in the hearts of Canadian soldiers, and they definitely deserve the full support of the Canadian government,” he said.
“If we want to get into conflict again, this needs to happen. Otherwise, whenever Canada goes abroad…people will look back at this. They are looking at us now. They say:’If we stick our necks out, Canada will abandon us.'”
© 2021 Canadian Press
