Canada on Track to Host Largest Afghan Resettlement Program

Washington – The federal government of Canada says it’s decided to achieve its goal of admitting at the very least 40,000 Afghan refugees by the tip of the 12 months.

Greater than 30,600 Afghans have been resettled in Canada since August 2021 when Ottawa introduced it will admit 1000’s of Afghans whose lives might be in danger below the brand new Taliban regime.

Canada ‘is agency in its dedication to resettle at the very least 40,000 Afghan nationals by the tip of 2023, which stays one of many largest packages on this planet,’ a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) instructed VOA.

Amongst these resettled, over 10,000 are people who labored for Canadian businesses and packages in Afghanistan whereas greater than 16,000, significantly ladies and civil society activists, have been admitted below humanitarian issues.

Greater than 18,000 functions are nonetheless below evaluation by Canadian and worldwide nongovernment organizations and the U.N. Refugee Company (UNHCR) for resettlement within the subsequent a number of months.

FILE – Afghan refugees are greeted after arriving in Canada, Aug. 4, 2021.

Resettlement operations are executed through chartered and business flights from Afghanistan and third-party international locations.

‘The present state of affairs is complicated and the challenges are extraordinary,’ the spokesperson mentioned. ‘How shortly any Afghan arrives in Canada as soon as their software is accepted depends upon quite a lot of elements, lots of that are past our management, and sometimes straight relate to the place Afghans are positioned.

‘There are vital challenges chartering flights in some areas and every nation units its personal entry and exit necessities and determines when and if these necessities are modified,’ the spokesperson mentioned.

Whereas Canada has no diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, a community of Canadian visa officers internationally are tasked with processing functions expeditiously to attain the goal by the tip of the 12 months.

Canada’s authorities allotted greater than $80 million to fund its Afghan program within the 2022-2023 monetary 12 months, based on IRCC, which has a complete annual funds of almost $3 billion, a portion of which can also be used to assist varied resettlement packages.

Girls

Half of the Afghan refugees taken by Canada are ladies who’re admitted primarily due to the Taliban’s systemic denial of primary rights for girls.

Human rights teams say Afghanistan is struggling a gender apartheid below the hardline Islamist regime.

UN: Taliban Pursuing Coverage of Gender Apartheid

Girls leaders, spiritual and ethnic minorities, journalists and LGBTI people are prioritized below Canada’s humanitarian resettlement program, which solely accepts candidates referred by UNHCR and two European human rights organizations.

‘It could truly be useful if it was simply ladies typically,’ Lauryn Oates, government director of a nongovernmental group Canadian Girls for Girls in Afghanistan, instructed VOA.

‘All ladies are in danger in Afghanistan,’ Oates mentioned, including that Canada and different international locations that admit Afghan refugees ought to settle for ladies ‘on the idea of gender alone.’

The USA and European international locations have additionally taken tens of 1000’s of Afghan refugees over the previous 20 months.

FILE – A feminine member of the army places her arms round two feminine Afghan refugees at an Afghan refugee camp on Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst, New Jersey, Sept. 27, 2021.

Within the fast aftermath of the Taliban’s return to energy, the U.S. army evacuated greater than 124,000 people from Afghanistan. Greater than 77,000 of these evacuees had been admitted into the USA for pressing humanitarian causes and provided a two-year entry parole, based on the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS).

A DHS spokesperson didn’t reply questions concerning the gender-based breakdown of the Afghans given paroled entry into the USA.

‘For the common Afghan lady, there are not any pathways to resettle to the U.S.,’ Devon Cone, a ladies’s rights advocate at Refugees Worldwide, instructed VOA.

Cone mentioned the U.S. Division of State’s P-1 and P-2 resettlement packages for Afghans don’t particularly goal ladies.

Managed via the U.S. Refugees Admission Program, the P-1 gives resettlement pathways for any particular person of any nationality with compelling safety wants, whereas the P-2 program is for ‘certified Afghans’ who labored for U.S. businesses in Afghanistan.

‘Despite the fact that these P-1 and P-2 packages exist, they aren’t actually functioning, particularly in locations like Pakistan,’ mentioned Cone. ‘There are only a few choices for Afghan ladies in danger to resettle to the U.S. and the choices that do exist should not working.’

Addressing a Home of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee in March, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned he’s ‘personally dedicated to maintaining our guarantees to those that stood by us in Afghanistan.’

‘The environment friendly processing and supreme resettlement of those people continues apace and stays among the many administration’s highest priorities,’ a State Division spokesperson mentioned.

VOA immigration reporter Aline Barros contributed to this report.