2nd Afghan Canadian sues feds, claiming fleeing Ukrainians treated better – National | 24CA News
The federal authorities is asking a decide to mix two separate lawsuits, after one other Afghan Canadian alleged Canada discriminated in opposition to Afghan refugees by treating them in a different way than they did Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.
A former Canadian language and tradition adviser who served NATO in Afghanistan filed a lawsuit on the finish of July alleging the federal government has not allowed his household in Afghanistan to hunt refuge in Canada.
That adopted a case filed in May by two different former language and tradition advisers who served within the Canadian army. They equally accuse the federal government of insisting their households don’t qualify for packages bringing Afghan refugees to Canada.
They all accuse the federal government of providing benefits to Ukrainians that weren’t supplied to Afghans hoping to flee the Taliban takeover in 2021.
Canada allowed a limiteless variety of Ukrainians and their members of the family to return to Canada on an emergency visa for 3 years to work and examine whereas they escape the Russian invasion of their dwelling nation.
“Many benefits are conferred upon Ukrainians that are not conferred upon foreign nationals from other countries, including from other countries experiencing devastating wars and human rights abuses,” the adviser to NATO alleges within the courtroom submitting.
He names Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and Myanmar as examples. None of the previous advisers are named within the courtroom paperwork due to the numerous hazard their households face in Afghanistan.
To date, Canada has welcomed 175,729 Ukrainians because the Russian invasion in February 2022. That is greater than 4 instances the variety of Afghans who’ve come to Canada as refugees since August 2021.
The authorities has not but filed a defence to the purposes from the Canadian advisers, however in the same case earlier than the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, the federal government argued that distinctive crises require a singular response.
The Canadian army recruited some 45 Canadian residents with Afghan heritage to function language and cultural advisers _ referred to as LCAs _ throughout the mission in Afghanistan. They had been granted top-secret safety clearance and risked their lives to serve alongside troopers.
The former NATO adviser behind the lawsuit is certainly one of a minimum of six Canadian residents who labored as an interpreter serving to Canadian, American and different NATO member nations’ army forces, and served from 2007 to 2011.
He says in his courtroom submitting that his six siblings and their households are at vital danger of torture, demise or damage in Afghanistan due to their connection to him and the work he did.
They don’t qualify to return to Canada. But the lawsuit alleges that in the event that they had been Ukrainian nationals, they’d be welcomed with an emergency visa.
After a bunch of LCAs made a human rights grievance concerning the state of affairs, the federal government reached a voluntary settlement and launched a particular program in March particularly to deliver their households to security.
The standards of that program are restrictive, nonetheless, and it isn’t open to all prolonged members of the family, similar to grownup nieces and nephews. It additionally doesn’t apply to individuals who labored for NATO as an alternative of the Canadian army.
The authorities mentioned on the time that the eligibility standards had been knowledgeable by a “range of stakeholders” however weren’t particular, saying solely that the method was “flexible and tailored.”
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan wrote to the immigration minister in April to lift issues about this system and the truth that it doesn’t apply to NATO personnel.
“As Afghanistan has come under Taliban rule since 2021, links to NATO/ISAF personnel represent a clear and present danger to the families of those who help Canada with their mission,” Kwan wrote to the immigration minister on the time, Sean Fraser.
“Canada must make every effort to bring them to safety.”
Sharry Aiken, a regulation professor at Queen’s University who focuses on immigration, mentioned it’s widespread for the courts to take care of comparable circumstances collectively after they elevate comparable authorized points.
“What you want to pay attention to is the fact that this is not just one complaint. It is a series of complaints from an affected population. And, you know, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more coming forward,” she mentioned.
She mentioned she was glad to see one other case come ahead that throws the excellence between the way in which Canada dealt with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan versus the way in which it reacted to the Russian invasion of Ukraine into such sharp aid.
“I don’t in any way want to suggest that Canada’s policy response to Ukraine was wrong or misguided. It wasn’t, it was appropriate,” she mentioned.
But when in comparison with the help supplied to Afghans, she mentioned: “I think that the there’s absolutely grounds for judicial over oversight of this and, I hope, correction of the policy.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
