Canada’s double standard

With the eyes of Canadians trained on the war in Ukraine, have we forgotten our moral obligation to the people of Afghanistan?

And, in particular, those Afghans who helped Canadian troops and non-governmental organizations navigate their country and who are now left to live in fear of Taliban terrorists?

A Canadian veterans group says yes, and it is calling on the federal government to live up to its promises as Afghan lives hang precariously in the balance.

This week, the Veterans Transition Network, which was created to help veterans suffering from mental health issues, announced it is winding down the work it had branched into in Afghanistan, trying to evacuate at-risk Afghans under threat from the Taliban.

The group says it has fundraised more than $3 million since last year and helped rescue more than 2,000 people from Afghanistan, but can carry on no longer under the burden of bureaucratic technicalities and staff exhaustion.

They will wind down that work May 2. Canada is part of the problem, the group says, citing an overcomplicated application process and the demand that biometric information be collected (fingerprints, photographs) before Afghans arrive in Canada. Some Afghans who manage to escape to a third country before coming to Canada are left waiting so long that their travel documents expire and they have to go back into Afghanistan and start the whole procedure again.

“These are people that have already been employed by Canada that already put themselves in harm’s way,” retired major general Denis Thompson told the Toronto Star. Thompson is on the Veterans Transition Network’s (VTN) board of directors.

“I just find it a little bit odd that we don’t put more emphasis on those that have helped us.”

Oliver Thorne, the VTN’s executive director, says Canada could help expedite the process by returning consular services to Afghanistan.

He also says he’s frustrated that the government is not putting Afghans in the same immigration express lane that has been opened up to Ukrainians.

On its webpage, Immigration, Refugees and Canadian Citizenship Canada states: “We are working around the clock to help Ukrainians and their families get to Canada as quickly and as safely as possible.

We are already prioritizing and fast-tracking applications, and waiving application and processing fees.”

It also says its work in helping Ukrainians “will not impact the processing of (other) refugee applications,” such as those from Afghanistan.

But the Veterans Transition Network argues otherwise. So far, only a quarter of the 40,000 Afghans that Canada has pledged to resettle have arrived in Canada.

The others are trying their best to escape the Taliban’s notice day by day, or else are caught up in a quagmire of red tape in some third country.

The federal government needs to take decisive action now to simplify the pathway to Canada, while those Afghans are still alive.

For the help they have given us, it’s the least we can do.