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Time running short for Afghans hoping for refuge in Canada

TORONTO —
Hundreds of Afghans fleeing the Taliban are rising more and more determined for any kind of lifeline that may carry them to security.

An estimated 1,700 males, girls and youngsters destined for Canada are at the moment holed up in secure homes throughout Afghanistan, the place they’re fearful for his or her lives after serving to the Canadian Armed Forces within the Afghanistan struggle.

“If he will get me, yeah, they may kill us, as a result of he is aware of about us,” stated one Afghan man, who’s notbeing named for security causes.

As he and hundreds of others are pleading for assist, there are few assets at there disposal in Canada and on the bottom after Canada’s embassy suspended operations on Aug. 15.

The Veterans Transition Community (VTN), which has been elevating cash to assist the Afghan interpreters, says cash is working out and so they have but to obtain any help from the federal authorities.

“We’ve got raised $1.7 million privately, we’ve got spent $1.4 million of that cash,” stated retired Maj.-Gen. Denis Thompson.

Thompson stated with the group’s present burn price, it solely has just a few weeks left to assist earlier than the cash runs out.

In a press release, a spokesperson for International Affairs Canada stated the company is “in shut contact” with the VTN and is “working to help their efforts to guard weak individuals in Afghanistan together with human rights defenders, girls peacebuilders, former Canadian Armed Forces interpreters and domestically engaged employees.”

The Canadian authorities has additionally supplied $27.3 million in “humanitarian help” for Afghanistan in 2021.

For Beazhan, who labored for a non-government group linked with Canada, the VTN was essential for his escape from Afghanistan.

“They’re having excessive human dignity and providing us numerous help,” he stated.

Beazhan and his household at the moment are secure and in a special nation, the place his niece was born two days after crossing the border.

“We have been in Kabul, we have been counting 9 and a half, now we’re 10 (folks),” he stated.

Canada has dedicated to welcoming 40,000 Afghans into the nation. These are folks and their family members who helped Canada throughout the Afghanistan struggle, together with interpreters and different help employees.

“All of the folks which might be making an attempt to get out are the cream of the crop of Afghanistan and they’ll add tremendously to this nation if we will simply get them right here,” Thompson stated.

International Affairs Canada wouldn’t disclose what number of Afghans have since been resettled in Canada, citing “safety issues.”

There’s a glimmer of hope for these nonetheless caught in Afghanistan, nevertheless, because the Taliban introduced on Tuesday that it might reopen its passport workplace, with a plan to provide as much as 6,000 passports per day.

With recordsdata from The Canadian Press

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