Canada pledges to cut wait time

OTTAWA — Canada will accelerate processing the families of interpreters and others who supported its mission in Afghanistan to quickly evacuate as many approved people as possible, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said Friday.

Mendicino said his department is ramping up processing Afghan refugees by adding resources to the operation.

He said the government is not requiring passports or COVID-19 negative tests from the Afghan passengers and is deferring biometric screening to a third country, where it’s safe for evacuees and government officials to be screened.

“We have now two of our largest air carriers running back and forth from Kabul. We’re going to keep those flights going for as long as possible,” he said.

Mendicino said the main obstacle remains the Taliban checkpoints that Afghans have to go through to reach the Kabul airport. “It’s our expectation that every Afghan that is eligible under our program be permitted safe passage to get to the airport,” he said.

The Department of National Defence announced this week that two C-17 transport aircraft had been deployed to conduct regular flights out of Kabul.

Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said the C-17s have been reconfigured to maximize the number of passengers they can carry and have begun to fly in and out of Kabul.

Mendicino says almost 1,000 Afghan refugees have already arrived in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday the first plane full of Afghan refugees took off from Kabul on Thursday.

“We have been working closely with our allies, particularly with the U.S. and the U.K. on ensuring that we are as effective as possible, all together, bringing out as many Afghans as possible and getting people to safety,” the Liberal leader said at a campaign stop in Winnipeg.

He said the two C-17 planes started evacuations on Thursday, and several more round-trip flights from Kabul will follow the next day.