Only 4 000 Made It Until Now
Back in September, the federal government promised to resettle Afghan refugees in Canada. After an especially slow start, it is projected to take up to two years for that to happen. Only about 4,000 Afghan refugees have arrived in the country to date.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser vaguely explained this situation to CBC: ‘it’s not easy to move 40,000 people from the most challenging environments imaginable.
The Minister’s spokesperson, Alex Cohen, said that several factors are slowing down this process, one of which is the lack of any official diplomatic presence in Kabul, along with the lack of infrastructure in Afghanistan. Despite this, there is no exact date when any concrete action could be expected, how many refugees the government and private sponsors are expecting to bring in, or why some applications are taking so long to process.
One of those applicants is Nelofar Akbari, a defence lawyer who focuses on women’s rights issues and domestic violence is currently staying in UAE with her family. Considering her career path, Akbari was targeted by the Taliban and was forced into hiding. She says she had reached out to every private sponsorship organization listed on the IRCC website but has yet to receive a response.
Kaylee Perez, the chair of Canada’s Sponsorship Agreement Holders Association Council, said that the government had asked private sponsors to take 7000 of the initial 20,000 refugees set to arrive in Canada. About 3,000 of them are expected by December 2023.
On the other hand, former NATO strategic adviser and political analyst Zobair Deen, said that he is in contact with dozens of Afghans who have made it to third countries, but don’t know how long they can stay there since the governments there are either pushing them out of the country or trying to have them deported.
