HUMANITARIAN GROUPS FURIOUS OVER EVACUATION
Trudeau doing little to help civilians who are desperately trying to flee Afghanistan
Anger doesn't begin to describe what Canadians working round the clock feel about the situation in Afghanistan and the Canadian government's lacklustre response.
“Fury,” is a better word, admits John Clayton, director of programs and projects with Samaritan's Purse Canada.
“If you watch CBC, you'll see our dear prime minister tell the Canadian public what the government of Canada won't be able to do. This is just a total load of BS,” says Clayton, who has been working to get dozens of people in Afghanistan out before they are slaughtered by the Taliban, which has gained control of most of the country after the U.S. military pulled out of the country.
“What needs to happen right now is the government of Canada needs to do things and not not do things,” he said with clear frustration in his voice.
Clayton says he just got notification from someone they've been helping who finally got on the government's list of people who can get on a Canadian plane. They were sent notification in Kabul to go to the airport.
“They can't get to the airport,” says Clayton, who adds this person and their family sent him a video clip of the road to the airport, jammed with people on foot with gunfire ringing out.
“Other European countries are sending troops outside the airport to some sort of muster points or places where people can be assembled and brought into the airport, otherwise it's impossible. It's impossible for a single person, but if you have small children, it would be a miracle to get there,” added Clayton, who has been to many war zones, including Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We've got a government that's in the middle of an election that they didn't need to call with a problem of very significant importance and we have people who are asleep at the switch, or on the campaign trail and not doing their freaking jobs.”
Clayton, who is normally very diplomatic in his wording, says because Samaritan's Purse, a Christian aid organization, “doesn't get a dime” of Canadian government money for its international and domestic humanitarian work, he can speak the truth more forcefully than many other non-governmental charity groups or civil society groups.
And he's right. Other groups are loath to go on the record with their criticism of how the government has handled the situation, leaving thousands of vulnerable Afghans, particularly women, caught in tangles of government red tape that is putting their lives in jeopardy after they were assured that helping our troops or civil society groups would not put them at risk and if they were, they would be helped to get out safely.
Earlier this week, more than two dozen NGOS, including Samaritan's Purse, signed a letter written by Oxfam Canada asking for “a special briefing ” with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and with Foreign Affairs “to receive an update on Canada's newly announced program supporting vulnerable Afghans.”
“So far, we've heard nothing from the government, it's been crickets,” said Clayton.
“Our organizations are gravely concerned about the safety of our staff, partners and colleagues in Afghanistan, who have been reaching out over the past week as the security situation is rapidly deteriorating with the Taliban's ascent to power,” states the letter.
“These women leaders and organizations, and our local staff, are now at grave risk and scrambling to get themselves and their families to safety. We have been inundated with requests for support and have facilitated asylum applications as best we can. It is now critical for government and civil society operating in Afghanistan to work together to ensure the women and girls have pathways to safety.”
Lauryn Oates, the executive director of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (Cw4wafghan), is working round the clock from Portugal trying to get 138 people out of Afghanistan, a country she has been working in for 25 years, since she was 14.
“It's so frustrating and I'm just so angry because this was so preventable. Our whole focus right now is getting as many people as possible out alive,” said Oates via a Zoom call.
“I have so much anger for the Canadian government because of the inexcusable bureaucratic delays that we've seen that have prevented people from being able to leave.”
Oates says every one of the 138 people she's trying to get out of the country are on the list for evacuation by Canada.
“The one thing standing between them and leaving is a letter from IRCC, from Immigration, that says they have permission to travel. We need a onepage letter, permission to travel and we can't get that issued. So they can't get in the airport gates without that and at this point, I've given up on them getting on a Canadian military plane because there's only two, that's the grand total that Canada committed to what they have said is their No. 1 foreign policy priority.”
Oates says if she thought it would help, she'd fly back to Canada and launch a hunger strike in front of Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino's office or in front of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office, but she can't tear herself away from working the phones and is getting incredible help by numerous Canadian Armed Forces veterans, some of whom are bravely helping on the ground in Kabul.
Oates has spoken with government officials and said: “I know there's no political will, I know as I'm saying this in your mind, you're saying, `impossible,' but this is like the precursor to Rwanda or Bosnia. If we don't get this right, this is going to be a bloodbath and later everyone will say, `We should have done everything we could.' No one will say, `Oh, well, it wasn't politically expedient, there was no appetite to re-engage in combat or air strikes, or it's hard getting people to the airport.'”
Clayton says one of his colleagues in Afghanistan has two daughters the same age as his. “I'm fired up about this. I'm furious. We have to save these beautiful people.”