Canada concluded combat operations in 2011 and left Afghanistan in 2014. However, many Canadians believe that the Canadian government should help those Afghans who served with Canadian troops and officials, often as interpreters, during that period. Even in the first years of Canada’s 2006-2011 combat mission in Kandahar province, there were numerous reports of the Taliban murdering interpreters. For this reason, the Canadian government launched a program in 2009 to bring interpreters and their families to Canada. About 800 interpreters immigrated here, but the program was often criticized for being too restrictive. At that time, these Afghans and their families would have not been declared as “refugees”, but would have been brought into Canada under the Afghan special-immigration measure.
Not applying refugee status at that time was for a number of reasons. First, the Afghan government did not threaten them or persecute them. The primary danger was from the Taliban insurgents, from whom the Afghan administration and security force were to provide security as the legitimate governing body. Secondly, these Afghans would not have been recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees under the Refugee Convention. Thirdly, refugees must be outside of their home countries, that is, they must enter another country before they can claim to be refugees. Fourthly, to be classified as a refugee, a person must be persecuted because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion and membership in a particular social group as per the above convention. War, violence and poverty are not enough to qualify for refugee status. Thus, it was not until the Taliban had overthrown the previous Afghan government that one could even contemplate giving any Afghans such a status. As Afghanistan teetered on the brink of collapse, Canada took almost two months for the new special immigration measure to be announced in late July.
However, no one, including the Americans, believed a few months and even weeks ago, that the Afghan security forces would have failed so quickly to repel the Taliban assault. Once this became clear, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) officials moved quickly to attempt to assist Canadian citizens and former Afghan interpreters and their families to fly out of Kabul. Regrettably, we all saw the unbelievable chaos that ensued once the Taliban had taken possession of Kabul. In the end, some estimate that only 18 percent of the 2,000 ex-employees and family members managed to get onto flights to Canada. Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of similar Afghans wanting to flee to Canada who are currently stuck in the country and remain in danger. Needless-to-say, Canadian vets of Afghanistan are not happy with the delays and the results. One cannot really blame them, except to repeat that these former Afghan allies and friends could not have been processed any faster under the difficult circumstances existing in Taliban-controlled Kabul.
Some observers have argued that, instead of funnelling everyone to Kabul, IRCC officials should have encouraged them to head immediately to safety in neighbouring countries. Of course, there are risks with doing so! They then would have to be declared convention refugees by the United Nations or other governments. As refugees, these Afghans could then apply to come to Canada. However, under the UN’s process, this would normally take years. Can Canada speed up the process?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The fact is that, like the U.S. and other allies, the ability for Canada to accommodate the immigration of Afghan interpreters and their families was limited by the former Afghan government and the unusual difficulties in declaring them to be recognized as refugees under the existing international convention. In order for Canada to live up to its humanitarian responsibilities, one can only hope that these Afghans can be helped in a timely way so as to eventually live in a country wishing to demonstrate its gratitude for their sacrifices.
FROLITICKS 