Ryan Tumilty - Yesterday
POSTMEDIA
OTTAWA – Canada’s immigration minister pledged to reduce backlogs across his department caused by the COVID-19 pandemic before the end of the year, but said getting refugees out of Afghanistan will continue to be a major challenge.
© Provided by National Post
OTTAWA – Canada’s immigration minister pledged to reduce backlogs across his department caused by the COVID-19 pandemic before the end of the year, but said getting refugees out of Afghanistan will continue to be a major challenge.
© Provided by National Post
Afghans in Islamabad plea for help. Canada's immigration minister Sean Fraser pledges to reduce the backlog by end of the year.
“I’m actually quite confident the vast majority of our lines of business will be back to about the service standard by the end of the year,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told MPs at a parliamentary committee on Tuesday
Fraser said that should include permanent residents and family reunification, as well as the government’s commitment to bring 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada by the end of this year.
The Liberal government made that pledge last summer during the election when the Afghanistan swiftly fell to Taliban forces. The government got some refugees out of the country before the Taliban took complete control, but thousands of people with ties to Canada were left behind.
Canada promised to take in 20,000-40,000 Afghan refugees. Where are they?
“I’m actually quite confident the vast majority of our lines of business will be back to about the service standard by the end of the year,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told MPs at a parliamentary committee on Tuesday
Fraser said that should include permanent residents and family reunification, as well as the government’s commitment to bring 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada by the end of this year.
The Liberal government made that pledge last summer during the election when the Afghanistan swiftly fell to Taliban forces. The government got some refugees out of the country before the Taliban took complete control, but thousands of people with ties to Canada were left behind.
Canada promised to take in 20,000-40,000 Afghan refugees. Where are they?
Only 2,385 Afghan nationals who assisted CAF mission relocated to Canada
Fraser said getting Afghans who have fled to other countries to Canada should be relatively straightforward, but for those living in Afghanistan it’s difficult.
“I am confident we can still do that but I don’t want to breeze over the fact that the territory is controlled by the Taliban,” he said. “I don’t want to sugarcoat things. It is really challenging to move people through Afghanistan and the stories are the most heartbreaking things.”
Conservative MP Jasraj Hallan said he heard from frustrated refugees that the government appeared to consider them security threats and are insisting on time-consuming and detailed checks.
Fraser said that isn’t the case.
“There’s not an internally held view that there is a class of people that have served Canada that pose a security threat to our national interest.”
NDP MP Jenny Kwan told Fraser the delays that Afghan refugees have seen are unacceptable and urged him to do more to address the problems.
Related video: Protest erupts outside Canada's embassy in Pakistan over delays in processing Afghan refugees (cbc.ca)
“Afghan interpreters with enduring relationships to Canada are being captured by the Taliban and are being tortured. Every second of the day counts for the lives of these individuals so I am absolutely astounded with the process here,” she said. “Maybe the minister should think about the option of engaging the military and asking them for help to bring people out of Afghanistan.”
Outside of Afghan refugees, Fraser said he hopes to alleviate the long waits that grew while COVID-related travel restrictions delayed the system.
During the pandemic, the government shifted the immigration focus to offering permanent residency to people who were already in Canada. Through a temporary resident-to-permanent resident program, they extended offers to student visa holders and people already in the country on work permits.
The government is still processing applications for people who applied through that program and will only start draws for economic immigrants abroad in July. On top of that, Canada has made large commitments on Afghan refugees and Ukrainians looking to flee the war.
The backlog across the system is so long that the department has put restrictions on the number of enquiries it will take from even MPs offices.
Fraser said he wants to eliminate that rule soon, but it’s a result of the large number of cases waiting in the backlog. He said every public servant responding to individual MPs is a public servant not helping to clear that backlog.
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said Fraser should be focusing on the larger issue.
“We’re not the problem. We’re a symptom of another problem, but insofar as that problem exists people need to go to their members of parliament and seek their support and advocacy,” he said.
Fraser was also asked about Ukranians fleeing the war. The government has rejected calls to provide visa-free travel to people fleeing Ukraine, instead creating a new program that allows Ukranians to come to Canada and work for up to three years.
But the program comes with an application process that includes biometric scanning and other measures for many applicants. Fraser said more than 200,000 people have applied through the program and approximately half of those have been approved to come to Canada, but only about 25,000 have actually made the trip here so far.
He said he is confident that the number of approvals will catch up with the applicants soon.
“Our capacity to process people exceeds the demand that’s being put onto the system, so the numbers in the inventory will continue to come down if that remains the case,” he said.
He said, during a recent trip to Europe, he found many people fleeing Ukraine want to be able to return to their home country and are getting Canadian travel approvals as more of a safety net.
“The people are, largely speaking, wanting to stay as close to Ukraine as possible.”
Twitter: RyanTumilty
Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com
Fraser pressed on why Immigration has not approved 2,900 Afghans who helped Canada
Tuesday
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — NDP caucus chair Jenny Kwan says she is seeking urgent answers about what has happened to the applications of 2,900 Afghans who helped the Canadian military.
Kwan is demanding Immigration Minister Sean Fraser explain why the Afghans, whose credentials were checked and verified by Canada's military, have not had their applications to come to Canada approved.
Defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre told a parliamentary committee Monday night that the Defence Department had checked and verified the credentials of 3,800 Afghans, including interpreters, who supported the Canadian military.
But the committee heard from Eyre and Bill Matthews, deputy defence minister, that only 900 of them have had their applications to come to Canada accepted so far by the Immigration Department.
The government has committed tobringing18,000 Afghans and their families to Canada who served as interpreters for the Canadian Armed Forces, or worked at the Embassy of Canada, or had some other enduring or significant ties with Canada.
Kwan said she is planning to pursue the matter vigorously with the department as the lives of Afghans who helped Canadian troops are in danger from the Taliban.
She also plans to ask if the Immigration Department has lost files of Afghan interpreters who want to come to Canada, saying the government has "betrayed them."
"With every single passing day, the risks are heightened for Afghans," Kwan said. "And for those who served this country and their loved ones, it is wrong that the government has left them behind."
A spokesperson from the minister's office said the department plans to extend more invitations to Afghans who have a confirmed relationship with Canada in the coming weeks.
After Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence confirm an Afghan's ties to Canada, their name is passed on to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, press secretary Aidan Strickland said in a statement Tuesday.
IRCC then sends an email to the people on that list inviting them to apply, she said. Only people who receive an invitation are able to apply for the special program.
"We have already received applications for more than 14,905 Afghan refugees under the Special immigration program for Afghans who assisted the Government of Canada and approved over 10,000 applications. IRCC continues to process applications as quickly as possible," Strickland said.
More than 6,200 Afghans have arrived through the special program, she said.
Kwan said the Taliban is hunting down interpreters and their families, and she wants Canada to issue a one-time travel document so vulnerable Afghans do not have to raise their heads to apply for passports.
It is dangerous for Afghans who helped Canadian Forces to apply to the Taliban authorities for passports, Kwan said.
"When you are being hunted down and you are trying to hide from the Taliban, you can't just walk into the office run by the Taliban and say, 'Can you issue travel documents, issue passports for my entire family?'" she said.
"The minute you do that, you are putting a red flag right on top of your head to be targeted."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022
Marie Wolfe and Laura Osman, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version reported that 3,100 Afghans had not yet been approved to come to Canada.
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — NDP caucus chair Jenny Kwan says she is seeking urgent answers about what has happened to the applications of 2,900 Afghans who helped the Canadian military.
Kwan is demanding Immigration Minister Sean Fraser explain why the Afghans, whose credentials were checked and verified by Canada's military, have not had their applications to come to Canada approved.
Defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre told a parliamentary committee Monday night that the Defence Department had checked and verified the credentials of 3,800 Afghans, including interpreters, who supported the Canadian military.
But the committee heard from Eyre and Bill Matthews, deputy defence minister, that only 900 of them have had their applications to come to Canada accepted so far by the Immigration Department.
The government has committed tobringing18,000 Afghans and their families to Canada who served as interpreters for the Canadian Armed Forces, or worked at the Embassy of Canada, or had some other enduring or significant ties with Canada.
Kwan said she is planning to pursue the matter vigorously with the department as the lives of Afghans who helped Canadian troops are in danger from the Taliban.
She also plans to ask if the Immigration Department has lost files of Afghan interpreters who want to come to Canada, saying the government has "betrayed them."
"With every single passing day, the risks are heightened for Afghans," Kwan said. "And for those who served this country and their loved ones, it is wrong that the government has left them behind."
A spokesperson from the minister's office said the department plans to extend more invitations to Afghans who have a confirmed relationship with Canada in the coming weeks.
After Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence confirm an Afghan's ties to Canada, their name is passed on to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, press secretary Aidan Strickland said in a statement Tuesday.
IRCC then sends an email to the people on that list inviting them to apply, she said. Only people who receive an invitation are able to apply for the special program.
"We have already received applications for more than 14,905 Afghan refugees under the Special immigration program for Afghans who assisted the Government of Canada and approved over 10,000 applications. IRCC continues to process applications as quickly as possible," Strickland said.
More than 6,200 Afghans have arrived through the special program, she said.
Kwan said the Taliban is hunting down interpreters and their families, and she wants Canada to issue a one-time travel document so vulnerable Afghans do not have to raise their heads to apply for passports.
It is dangerous for Afghans who helped Canadian Forces to apply to the Taliban authorities for passports, Kwan said.
"When you are being hunted down and you are trying to hide from the Taliban, you can't just walk into the office run by the Taliban and say, 'Can you issue travel documents, issue passports for my entire family?'" she said.
"The minute you do that, you are putting a red flag right on top of your head to be targeted."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022
Marie Wolfe and Laura Osman, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version reported that 3,100 Afghans had not yet been approved to come to Canada.
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