Canada’s refugee system continues to fail Afghans

tomtidgewellNovember 24, 2022

Desperation has set in for a family about to come to Canada in the face of being handed back to the Taliban from Pakistan

Afghans hold placards as they gather to seek help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who was visiting Islamabad, Pakistan, May 12, 2022. Photo by FAROOQ NAEEM /AFP via Getty Images

From Islamabad, Fakhria Momtaz let out a torrent of frustration. Why is she, her husband, mother and four children eating away at a refugee existence instead of creating a new life in their desired sanctuary, Vancouver?

She held her breath and let out her despair without waiting for an answer.

“I have been here for 1 year and 2 months. We do not have a visa for Pakistan as our visa expired at the end of June. We have applied for a new one but there is no hope of getting one.”

Momtaz and her family are the kind of refugees that Canada seems to encourage, but the bureaucracy of the immigration system has created an unequal, complicated and often unfair process.

After the Taliban regained power in August 2021, the country promised to host 40,000 Afghan refugees, but has received just over half. As of November 16, his total was 25,220.

A little earlier breakdown shows that the special immigration measures program for those who assisted Canadian forces in Afghanistan received 16,560 applications, of which 11,105 were approved and 9,035 arrived in Canada. Another 14,835 Afghans arrived through other government-sponsored refugee programs and privately-sponsored refugee programs.

Similarly, 670 extended families arrived after qualifying under the program for former interpreters resettled in Canada.

These programs fall far short of meeting your needs.

Unlike Ireland and other countries that have eliminated requirements such as visas and official documents, Ottawa has been slow to respond to complaints.

Consider that the country has hosted 109,000 Ukrainians since February 24, when Russia invaded..

Immigration spokeswoman Isabelle Dubois said Ukrainians will use the existing temporary visa process and enlist the help of the large expat community to enter the country.

“This is not a refugee program compared to the Afghan refugee resettlement programme, as Ukrainians have indicated that they need a temporary safe harbor. I plan to return to my home country at some point.”

Displaced Afghans like Momtaz feel abandoned and excluded. Especially given that we are encouraged to embrace Western values.

Momtaz and her husband run an IT company in Afghanistan that works with Google, and she opened her first yoga studio in Kabul.

“On International Yoga Day, June 21, 2020, we decided to do our session outdoors. … We did our session on a hillside. I got media invitations, lots of coverage, photographers, news agencies, I got so many calls, they came and covered it and it exploded on social media and in the news. .”

But the numerous photos of women playing downward dog outside were too much for Afghanistan’s fundamentalist religious leaders.

“They threatened me and declared jihad against us,” Momtaz said. Then there were death threats.

“I was unable to leave my house for two months. From that moment on, my life changed. I knew Afghanistan was no longer the place for me, I tried to leave, but I couldn’t get a visa for a neighboring country.”

Momtaz had planned to board an evacuation flight, but was unable to survive the chaos around the airport. Those who cloaked her and advertised her turned her back on her.

“The evacuation from Afghanistan lasted two weeks. , National Geographic, Al Jazeera, nobody supported me, who made a documentary about me helped others evacuate, but I didn’t. I don’t know.”

She already has three of her five sponsors in Vancouver, a financial angel funding her family and a brother who moved to Toronto after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Required sponsorship to complete her course.

“Pakistan has no future for us,” she lamented. “This is not safe and the big challenge is Pakistan has announced that if we don’t have visas they will deport us to Afghanistan. We won’t. The Taliban will be waiting when they are deported.”

She is not hopeful.

“No progress…Canada sent me a link to Immigration, but when I visited the site, I didn’t stand a chance. I did… it was kind of a denial.”

In any event, Fakhria argued that:

imulgrew@postmedia.com

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