Canada said on Tuesday it would resettle some 5,000 Afghan refugees evacuated by the United States as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government tackles an issue that critics say has been neglected during its re-election campaign.
“We know there is more to do with ending allied evacuation operations,” Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said in a briefing. “We are doing everything we can to help as many Afghans as possible who want to settle in Canada.”
Canada evacuated 3,700 people from Kabul in recent weeks, some 2,000 of whom were Afghans, and their families, who had assisted Canadian soldiers and diplomats in the past. Canada ended its mission to Afghanistan in 2011, but the military trainers stayed until 2014.
Trudeau, 49, called snap elections on September 20 on the day of Kabul’s fall, and critics said his government’s evacuation efforts were slow and falling short of what other countries were doing.
About 54% of Canadians think Ottawa should have acted more quickly to help Afghans, according to a Postmedia / Leger Marketing survey released last week.
The 5,000 refugees evacuated by the United States will be resettled as part of a previously announced Canadian plan to accept more than 20,000 vulnerable Afghans who have already left the country, including women leaders, human rights workers and journalists.
“We want to welcome Afghan families who have helped Canadians, who have fought for justice, who fought for the rights of the LGBT community, women, journalists,” Trudeau said at a campaign event in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Canada said it hoped to continue helping Afghans who want to resettle as long as the Taliban allow them to leave. Some 1,250 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and family members are stranded in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said.
“Afghans with travel documents to other countries must be able to move safely and freely out of the country without interference,” Garneau said at the briefing. “Canada and its allies are firm on this point and we are united.”
Celebratory shots rang out in Kabul on Tuesday as the Taliban seized control of the airport following the withdrawal of the last American troops, marking the end of a 20-year war that left the Islamist group stronger than in 2001.
Reuters
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