I fought with Canada. Now the government is leaving my family to be killed by the Taliban. – Macleans.ca
Hameed Khan and Ghulam Faizi labored as interpreters alongside the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan earlier than Kabul fell to the Taliban. Since then, they’ve struggled to convey their households—who’re being actively focused by the Taliban—to security in Canada, together with a bunch of greater than 300 interpreters dealing with the identical destiny. The Canadian authorities, they are saying, has repeatedly damaged guarantees and delayed processing essential paperwork. After two starvation strikes on Parliament Hill, they continue to be determined to convey their family members out of hurt’s manner. This is their story.
HAMEED KHAN: We fought shoulder to shoulder with the Canadian Armed Forces. We have been their eyes and ears on the bottom. There are interpreters amongst us who’ve misplaced limbs on the entrance traces. We’ve watched our colleagues and associates blown to items. We’ve misplaced relations within the battle. We reside with lifelong trauma. Now, our households are in peril due to our relationship with the armed forces.
The Taliban function based mostly on an extremist, medieval idea. If they’ll’t punish you, they’ll punish your brother. They’ll punish anybody they’ll get their arms on. They killed my youthful brother final yr, even earlier than the autumn of the democratic authorities. One interpreter in our group has had 11 relations killed by the Taliban.
GHULAM FAIZI: When Afghanistan’s democratic authorities fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, the Canadian authorities organized navy evacuation flights. We despatched emails on behalf of our households to the designated Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) addresses, however solely obtained automated responses. On August 30, navy evacuation flights halted for good.
We began organizing with our fellow interpreters the subsequent day, once we realized the federal government wasn’t going to do something for us.
KHAN: We organized cross-Canada protests, together with in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. The goal was to tell the Canadian public and lawmakers about what was occurring. On September 15, having obtained no significant communication from the federal government, we staged a starvation strike on Parliament Hill.
Mike Jones—who on the time was chief of workers on the IRCC—agreed to take a seat down with us and listen to our considerations [Ed. note: he’s now chief of staff to Marco Mendocino, the minister of public safety]. During an hour-long name, he promised the federal government would provoke a public coverage course of to convey our prolonged households to Canada. Within 48 hours of that going into impact, he promised, our households would get distinctive shopper identifier (UCI) and G numbers—these numbers are an important step that enable all different immigration and refugee processes to start. He mentioned he anticipated the primary batch of relations to reach within the first quarter of 2022.
FAIZI: The coverage launch was delayed from one month to a different earlier than lastly being unveiled on December 9. We submitted all of the related paperwork inside days. Initially, our checklist included the prolonged households of interpreters and had 15,000 names on it, however Mike mentioned the federal government wouldn’t be capable to present resettlement assistant program (RAP) help for that many. We agreed to chop it all the way down to 4,888. That’s a median of about 20 relations per interpreter, and contains solely mother and father, siblings and their dependents.
By January 10, we obtained UCI numbers for less than about 35 per cent of our group members. Then they stopped issuing numbers altogether.
In the meantime, we met weekly with Mike and different members of the IRCC. We reminded them each time, and so they simply mentioned, “We’re working on it.” By March, we hadn’t had any additional traction getting UCI numbers.
READ: The world left these Afghan ladies behind. Now they’re fending for themselves.
KHAN: Not a single member of the family had arrived in Canada by that time. On a really chilly March 31, we launched our second starvation strike on Parliament Hill. That one acquired vital media consideration. Finally, the federal government began issuing UCI numbers once more. To date, we nonetheless have about 50 households whose functions are being ignored and are nonetheless ready for his or her case numbers. As of in the present day, solely 48 relations on the checklist of 4,888 have really arrived in Canada.
FAIZI: The downside is that slightly than bringing individuals right here and doing paperwork then, or at the least serving to them make it to a protected third nation like Pakistan, the federal government is asking for documentation that’s almost unimaginable—in some instances, actually unimaginable—to supply.
To go away Afghanistan and make it to Pakistan, our households want passports, which not everybody has. Obviously they’ll’t simply present up at a Taliban workplace asking for exit paperwork. Meanwhile, the Taliban is actively looking out individuals’s houses for any condemning proof, which has compelled many individuals to burn utility paperwork to keep away from being killed. The Canadian authorities might circumvent this downside by offering people with a single-journey journey doc, which successfully replaces a passport and is designed for circumstances like this. It refuses to take action.
For those that have made it to Pakistan, the IRCC is just not transferring ahead with the processes to convey our households right here. In some instances it’s delaying them a lot that their visas are expiring, which forces them to return to Afghanistan.
The authorities has cited safety considerations, however interpreters are vetted to the intense. We’ve shared rooms and eating tables with Canadian troopers. We vouch for our households.
KHAN: Moreover, the IRCC initially promised that they would offer our households with the yr of RAP help, which each and every refugee is entitled to as soon as they resettle right here. Then they went again on that. After we put strain on them, they modified their tune once more and mentioned they’ll get three months of help, after which we’re on our personal.
People are coming right here with out the power to show any work or monetary historical past. How are they going to lease a home, get a job and study English in such a short while? It’s like this system is designed for individuals to fail.
FAIZI: The IRCC instructed us we’ve got to select up our households from the airport and supply them with short-term after which everlasting lodging. How can we try this for a median of 20 relations per interpreter if we’re residing in two- or three-bedroom flats and making middle-class incomes?
KHAN: We’re nonetheless assembly with the IRCC each week, however increasingly we really feel that we’re being disregarded. Delaying and rescheduling conferences has turn into a sample.
Our calls for of the Canadian authorities are easy. Provide UCI and G numbers to households who’ve been ready for six months. Expedite the processing of paperwork to convey individuals right here. Provide lodging and single-journey journey paperwork that may enable individuals to cross into Pakistan. And present the complete yr of RAP help for our households, like each different refugee is entitled to.
What’s the explanation behind all these delays? I believe the federal government is after strikes that can seize consideration. When public consideration shifted from Afghanistan to Ukraine, so did their assets. And whereas we’ve got nothing however empathy for the individuals of Ukraine, why are we being handled so otherwise? Why is there such indifference to our ache and struggling?
We are allies of the Canadian authorities. We put every part on the road, together with our households’ security, to battle shoulder to shoulder with Canadians. Now that our households are in disaster, empty guarantees are all we’ve gotten in return.
—As instructed to Liza Agrba
