What is Being Done to Speed Up the Process to Resettle Afghan Refugees?

On May 31, 2022 Senator Omidvar asked Senator Gold, the Government Representative in the Senate, what is being done to speed up the process to resettle Afghan refugees.

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, my question is once again about Afghanistan.

We all know how brutal that regime is. As an example, a few weeks ago Yama Naseemi, a young 24-year-old boy who applied for protection to Canada, was shot brutally outside his home in Kabul. His application was supported by Operation Abraham, which is headed up by former minister of justice Irwin Cotler.

We know that we have promised to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees. We know that roughly 13,000 have applied to come, but the point of protecting vulnerable refugees is that they need to be protected soon, and quickly. That should be our operating motto. Senator Gold, can you tell me what new efforts the government is making to extract those most vulnerable in Afghanistan and bring them to safety?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. If it were only a matter of will, there would be at least 40,000 Afghan refugees in Canada already, but the reality is that at every step of the way there are obstacles facing the government that were not present in other large-scale resettlement efforts to which Canada was a party. There are a number of significant factors that the Government of Canada simply does not control, such as safe passage out of Afghanistan and the ability for those Afghans that the government wants to resettle here to leave the country. The government continues to work on these each and every day.

As colleagues know, the Government of Canada has no military or diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, which makes travel difficult and, indeed, dangerous. As Afghanistan is currently controlled by the Taliban, which this government does not recognize as a legitimate government, this prevents any diplomatic engagement or negotiations on the exit of Afghan nationals from Afghanistan. Moreover, colleagues, third countries determine the entry and exit documents required to transit through their country, which may include the need for an Afghan visa and passport.

Despite these challenges, we have now welcomed over 15,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. The government continues to process Afghan refugees’ applications day and night. The government has mobilized its entire global network to process visas and issue them on an urgent basis.

Senator Omidvar: Thank you, Senator Gold. That was very fulsome answer. I appreciate that.

Although Afghanistan is not Syria — the context is extremely different — I also want to give credit to the government for that Herculean effort just six years ago. That history, I think, is still fresh in our minds.

The government has so far produced three reports outlining the lessons learned from that experience. My concern is that the lessons learned may well be lessons lost, because we’re not applying them. Can you tell me what the government is doing to train Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, staff so that they can be better prepared for these crises, which will no doubt come again, and apply them at this moment to Afghanistan?

Senator Gold: I don’t have a specific answer to what training is being done in response to this particular situation, but, again, it gives me the opportunity to underline the tragic difference. Both situations are tragic, to be sure, but there is a difference in what we were facing in Syria and what we’re facing with Afghanistan.

In the case of Syria, we were taking people from camps in Lebanon and Jordan. They had already been processed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There was an ability to get a bit of a heads-up on the situation. It is just not the case, unfortunately, with regard to Afghanistan. It’s hard to apply a rigorous screening process when a country is still in the state that Afghanistan is.

The government remains committed to working on it. I will make inquiries about whatever additional training may be taking place and report back when I can.