:
Good evening. I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number seven of the House of Commons Special Committee on Afghanistan, created pursuant to the House order of December 8, 2021.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021. I would like to remind all those present in the room to please follow the recommendations from the public health authorities, as well as the directive of the Board of Internal Economy on October 19, 2021, to remain healthy and safe.
Should any technical challenges arise, please advise me, as we may need to suspend for a few minutes to ensure that all members are able to participate fully. Our witnesses should be aware that translation in English or French is available through the globe icon at the bottom of their screens. Please select it now, so that it's easier for members later on.
Before we begin, I want to flag a change in schedule to the honourable members. Unfortunately, the , the honourable Harjit Sajjan, is not available on April 11, as we had reported. He's available to appear on April 4, along with the departmental officials.
On April 4, we will have , Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and officials for the first hour, and and the officials for the second hour.
Also, the is unable to appear before the committee on April 4, as proposed in the work plan, but is available to appear on May 9. The minister would appear for the first hour, with the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces officials appearing for the full two hours.
If everyone is in agreement, the clerk can confirm this with the minister's office. Do any of the members have any objection? I see none.
Madam Clerk, I respectfully ask that you follow up with the ministers. Thank you.
Now, on behalf of all committee members, I would like to welcome our witnesses for our first panel. This evening, we have Alison MacLean and Djawid Taheri. From the Tenth Church refugee ministry, we have Katherine Moloney, a representative for Afghan families.
Welcome to each of you. You will have five minutes for opening remarks. Please make sure that you respect the time, so the members can have their time.
It is my understanding that Ms. MacLean has a video. That will be part of your five minutes, Ms. MacLean.
Now let's start with Ms. MacLean. Go ahead for five minutes, if you're ready.
:
Thank you very much for allowing me to speak with the group.
I have spent a great deal of time in Afghanistan. I did four combat camera embeds with six NATO countries. I am currently helping to sponsor a number of families, two of which are in Pakistan. I have been struggling, of course, with IRCC's capabilities, etc.
I'd like to start off with a two-minute clip from Burkas2Bullets, which I want to show to bring everyone up to speed on Afghanistan and the reason we're here this evening.
I will finish up with the final three minutes. It's just two minutes, so we can start it now, please.
[Video presentation]
Thank you very much.
One of the reasons why I wanted to show that clip is the continual presence of ISIS-K and the attacks at the airport, which of course you know about, that happened in Kabul. My two families were at the airport at the time. Luckily, they were not injured. Sadly, I had to have them go back to the airport to attempt a military airlift, which they were not able to get on to, due to the Taliban blocking the terminal.
My main presence here this evening is because the so-called operation Afghan safety program has not expedited the refugee requests. IRCC is understaffed. We are not able to get families, who have been in flight for seven months in third countries, access to Canadian embassies, because the staff are overwhelmed with requests.
I have two families, as I said, who are being privately sponsored, and we have great help from Canadians and Rotarians, etc. Many of you know that Canada arrived late to the evacuation and left early with planes half full. We left our fixers and translators in limbo. The families I am currently supporting and helping are fixers I worked with for years. They're in flight because they are on Taliban lists.
Canada has left them stranded. The Taliban have Canadian blood on their hands. I do not believe we should be negotiating with them. Qatar should be doing a great deal more, and the UAE countries. I do not support Canada sending money to Afghanistan.
The Taliban are using starvation techniques to control the population—a standard war crime—and this is one of the reasons why we need to support IRCC more. We need to get money into the immigration program so that families such as the ones I've been helping for seven months, with Rotarians' help, will be able to get into Canada.
:
Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee.
I appear before you as an Afghan Canadian lawyer who himself once was welcomed to Canada as a refugee, back in the 1980s. That was when Afghanistan was actually invaded by the then Soviet Red Army, much like the tragedy we witness in Ukraine today.
As a refugee lawyer, in the past 20 years I have had the honour of listening to some of the most horrific and heart-wrenching accounts narrated by Afghan refugees fleeing their homeland. Over the years, my colleagues and I have come to learn of the Taliban's propensity to some of the most horrendous violence imaginable, and how those targeted by the group end up being tortured and killed on the basis of no more than a mere suspicion.
Therefore, when Taliban forces took power in Kabul and entered the city on August 15 of last year, we had no doubt as to the terrifying future and atrocities that awaited those who stood for democracy, freedom, gender equality and human rights.
In the weeks that followed, my colleagues and I worked around the clock fielding hundreds of calls and emails from Afghans seeking resettlement in Canada in order to save their lives. We wrote letters to the government and, in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover, we attended several high-level meetings with ministers of the government and officials. There, we put forth recommendations and discussed Canada's response. We also found ourselves on the receiving end of a flurry of inquiries from the community as to the specifics of Canada's response and how the government intended to help.
However, once Canada announced its pledge to resettle 20,000 vulnerable Afghans, which was later increased to 40,000, the impediments appeared insurmountable to those of us in the legal community. For one thing, requirements for Afghans to be in a third country clearly shut the door to those targeted individuals who were still inside the country and moving from safe house to safe house to save their lives and evade the Taliban.
Furthermore, the eligibility criteria for the special humanitarian program turned out to be extremely narrow, excluding many at-risk groups, including women fearing gender-based persecution. Under the program, once prospective refugees somehow do make it to a third country, they are required to obtain UNHCR acceptance, UNHCR referral and, basically, refugee recognition by the UNHCR host country. The problem is that in none of the countries bordering Afghanistan is the UNHCR actually doing that. It's not available.
Also, none of the neighbouring countries have their own system of refugee determination. Tajikistan was the only one that was doing it before, but post-August 2021 they stopped, because I guess they were overwhelmed by the flood of refugees that ended up in that country.
While Canada's special resettlement program is set up with good intentions, in my respectful, humble opinion it is unable, in its current form, to respond to the crisis in Afghanistan in an effective and timely manner. What's more, the UNHCR prerequisite also makes it impossible for Canadians to resettle Afghan refugees through the programs that are designed for private sponsorship programs, such as the group of five private sponsorships.
There are currently literally hundreds of groups in Canada that are ready, able and willing to sponsor Afghan refugees from third countries, but they cannot do that, because of this particular requirement for the UNHCR recognition. This prerequisite is prohibitive and must be waived, as was done in the case of Syria back in 2015.
Having said this, however, when we look at the government and how the government is utilizing simple and expeditious measures to facilitate the resettlement of Ukrainians to Canada, one starts to wonder: Why isn't this possible for Afghan refugees? Since August 2021, only 8,500 Afghans have been resettled in Canada out of the 40,000 pledged. For Ukrainians, we have resettled over 7,000 in the first three months alone, since January.
By comparison, Canada resettled 25,000 Syrian refugees in a matter of about 100 days, meaning that when there's a will, there always is a way.
:
Mr. Chair and honourable members, I'm immensely grateful for the opportunity to speak with you today.
I'm here representing Tenth Church refugee ministry and the community of over 150 Afghan refugee claimants we serve.
I am from Australia. My husband Samih is from Syria. We met in Lebanon and now call Canada home.
Samih is a grateful recipient of Canada's open-handed generosity to refugees. While I have never been a refugee, as a survivor of torture, I have an abiding respect for Canada, which is internationally recognized as a place of refuge and welcome for those fleeing conflict and crisis. Indeed, today is a monumental day for us. It is the three-year anniversary of Samih's arrival in Canada. He is now eligible for citizenship.
Samih and I serve two refugee ministries in British Columbia, where we live. He and I have formed and facilitate multiple refugee settlement teams to welcome refugees currently held in Australian immigration detention. We do this with organizational partners Mosaic and Ads Up Canada. We also serve the Tenth Church refugee ministry, which provides extensive settlement services and social support to Afghan refugee claimants. Indeed, some of our closest friends here in Canada are members of the Afghan community.
However, at the outset I want to acknowledge that most of my Afghan friends are themselves unable to appear before the special committee because of the extreme risk doing so would pose to their loved ones in Afghanistan. I come, therefore, with deep humility and speak out of relationships of respect, reciprocity and responsibility.
I refer you first and foremost to the document entitled “Defining Family”, which contains the voices of Afghans in Canada as compiled by Journey Home Community Association and Tenth Church refugee ministry. This is the message the Afghan community wish the Government of Canada to hear. Building upon this document is a second, which contains recommendations for a coherent and consistent family reunification policy specific to the Afghan crisis.
Canada defines family members as one's spouse and dependent children. This narrow definition places Afghan families at risk. Afghan families typically live together as multi-generational households, and thus immediate family includes parents, siblings and children of any age. As well as parents and unmarried siblings, other dependants include those in the household and those who are financially dependent.
The Afghan definition of “family” matters because the Taliban target family members. The Taliban hold an entire family responsible for the actions of one family member and operate under a revenge model, which requires the life of a family member in place of a person who has evaded capture. Thus, whole families face deferred risk for the actions of one family member, including a Canadian-based family member.
There is, however, current precedent for expanding the definition of “family”. The special family reunification program offers permanent residence for extended family members of a subset of former Afghan interpreters. Under this program, extended family includes parents, siblings and children of any age. Moreover, Afghans who assisted the Canadian government can apply to resettle their de facto dependants, where de facto dependants are defined as those who live in the same household or who are financially or emotionally dependent. Both of these initiatives more adequately reflect the reality of Afghan families.
Addressing the current policy gap requires an expansion of the special family reunification program beyond interpreters. Specifically, the expanded special family reunification program should offer permanent residence for the Afghan extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. In exceptional circumstances, and where there is evidence of risk, the expanded special family reunification program should include de facto dependants. To ensure fairness, the processing of applications should prioritize those with evidence of risk and/or the presence of additional risk factors.
In sum, Canada needs a streamlined extended family reunification policy to respond to the Afghan crisis. Expanding the definition of “family” for Afghan family reunification demonstrates both compassion for and cultural sensitivity to the particular risks experienced by Afghans.
Thank you.
:
I documented the Taliban extensively. Particularly in 2010, I was with Canada and the U.S. forces. In 2012, 2014 and 2016, I was supported by four other countries, primarily Germany. I was all over Afghanistan.
The Taliban were and still are, in my opinion, in lockstep with ISIS-K. ISIS-K is just an extension of the Taliban. NATO forces and the intelligence services, Canadian included, for whatever reason chose to ignore how serious the Taliban resurgence was.
In 2016, ironically, I went in with Russian forces into Kunduz. They were able to push back, with NATO forces, the Taliban resurgence in 2016. It took all of less than a week to do that. I was with six different countries on that mission.
However, after that moment, they should have realized that the Taliban were gaining regular footholds, and it was ignored. I don't understand why the intelligence communities, worldwide and NATO-wide, ignored journalists who were on the ground and warning about this issue.
:
I'm not sure if you have received a copy of the policy recommendations that I sent out. In that document, I've detailed how we can potentially bring these processes together.
First, I think we already have some really great programs, which just need to be expanded. That would mean that the small subset of recipients for the current special family reunification program would be broadened to include all Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have extended family at risk in Afghanistan. That very program that is already in existence could be widened for all Afghan Canadians.
We can also learn from the other program that is for Afghans who assisted the Canadian government. This program is a wider program and allows de facto dependants—and de facto is quite widely defined. In certain circumstances, particularly where there's established risk, aunties, uncles, nieces and nephews who are specifically at risk should be considered under the same extended family reunification program.
I do propose that, because we need to have a streamlined and fair approach, we consider using the risk factors that are already in use by the Canadian government, which are particular to the special humanitarian program. The five categories listed are women leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, persecuted religious and ethnic minorities, and LGBTI people, but also Afghans who assisted the Canadian government.
Like the rest of the programs for Afghanistan, we need to prioritize the processing of family reunification.
Thank you.
I thank all the witnesses who are here to participate in our study, which is extremely important.
To conduct this study, we decided to focus on the humanitarian crisis. There are obviously lessons to be learned from the management of the crisis. The members of the committee decided that there should be something to learn from this. What can we do, now and in the very short term, to help the Afghan people, who are currently experiencing a tragedy of immeasurable proportions?
We have been conducting this study for some time now, and I have had the opportunity to ask some witnesses what the committee report's top priority recommendations should be in order to make a difference. They named several: suspending administrative formalities such as forcing someone to fill out a form on the Internet when they are in mortal danger; not having to have refugee status to sponsor someone from Canada; and having a diplomatic presence on the ground, in Pakistan and elsewhere, to help Afghans come to Canada.
I'd like you to tell us what you think.
Do you support these recommendations? What is your top priority? It is extremely important that we know this before we write our report.
I would like Mr. Taheri to answer the questions first. After that, Ms. Moloney and Ms. MacLean can answer them. I would like to hear from all three of you.
:
Honourable member, my first priority is ensuring that the recognition under UNHCR for each refugee be waived, be eliminated, as was done in the past. In fact, this is not something that was in the law in the past. It's only in the past decade or so that this came to be.
We've always made exceptions in certain circumstances. The government has to treat this situation as an emergency. We need help today, not two years from today.
The government has indicated that the program is going to be implemented in the next two to three years. That's too long. We have the capacity to do this a lot sooner. We don't need to have people stuck in third countries and a never-ending saga of a determination process. We could have them just the way we are doing it with the Ukrainian community. We can bring them here and then process the paperwork in Canada. That can be done. People can be issued temporary visas to come to Canada. Instead of the standard six months, we can extend it to a year or two years. In the interim, the biometrics can be done. Whatever needs to be done in terms of paperwork, there will be support here for those potential refugees and they can get the help they need and the protection they require.
Given the circumstances and country conditions, a prima facie situation as far as refugees are concerned, we have to recognize that these people need the help of countries such as Canada. To allow more time to pass, we're exposing a lot more people to risk, and in my opinion, that's not okay.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for their presentations.
You're absolutely correct, in the sense that when Canada undertook the Syrian refugee initiative, we waived the refugee determination requirements. However, that is not being done in this instance. In fact, any of the refugee sponsorships from the group of five process also would not get the waiver of the refugee determination process. From that perspective, it means that people would not be able to get out within the 40,000 that the government wants to resettle.
I hear that this is your number one priority for the government to undertake. Why do you think the government is not proceeding with it?
I actually don't understand it. I've talked to the , it feels like a million times, raising this issue, but they're refusing to acknowledge this and move forward. Do you have any speculation as to why that is?
My thanks to the witnesses. I don't even know where to start here. You've reaffirmed, in the bad sense, just how bad things are. I had two tours in Afghanistan. I know first-hand what the Taliban is capable of doing. I, myself, and you and others had been speaking out about this before Kabul even fell. As you said, Ms. MacLean, it was shameful that we arrived late and we were out early.
I just want all the witnesses to again highlight—because I think your testimony did it phenomenally—why it's so important to get them out. I know some of you have refugees or Afghans who are already out of the country, but I really want you to, again, highlight briefly the risk faced by these former Afghan women police officers, former Afghan police, etc.
Would you like to start, Ms. Moloney?
:
Sure. I don't know if there's time, but I would love to give a couple of examples.
I would like to give two representative examples of families who could be helped if Canada introduces an expanded special family reunification program specific to the Afghan crisis. At the outset, I note that I use these examples with the permission of the Canadian-based family members of both families and I'll refrain from using names of people or organizations, which could identify these families.
The Canadian-based family member of family A is an absolute delight. She's a social butterfly with a bubbly personality and a beautiful heart. She is beloved by all. She works two jobs and in addition to her own family, provides financial support to multiple families in Afghanistan. When she was living in Afghanistan, the Canadian-based member of family A held a senior role supporting literary programs throughout the country. She undertook this at great personal risk and in time was forced to flee for her life. Because she is a high-profile female, her family faces deferred risk of Taliban reprisals. They are also at risk due to their own activities. Indeed, this is a family of prominent women's rights activists and human rights defenders. The sisters in particular face extreme risk. The younger sister has had her activism televised nationally.
Since taking over in August, the Taliban have forcibly entered and searched the family's home. Mercifully, the family narrowly escaped through a window. Around the same time, the Taliban issued the entire family with an order of execution. The family are now in hiding. Believing that they would increase their risk of capture if they remain together, they have separated in the hope that at least half of them will survive. All face extreme and immediate risk of execution if captured.
With family B, the Canadian-based member of family B is a really great guy. At first he may come across as rather serious and formal, and he certainly is a structured thinker who ponders matters deeply, but he also has a brilliant dry sense of humour and he's well respected in the community. He is a senior professional who works a second job so that he can provide for his Afghan-based family. My husband and I really enjoy spending time with him.
The Canadian-based member of family B was engaged in economic development when he was in Afghanistan, but fled to Canada when his work made him a target of Taliban reprisals. He is now a responsible Canadian citizen. His Afghan-based family are passionate about nation building, community development and the defence of human rights. The father served for almost two decades as a leader in the community and a high-profile social activist who even co-founded a non-profit organization. Tragically, the father was murdered by the Taliban in 2020.
The female-headed household remaining in Afghanistan comprises the mother and three adult siblings. The three siblings, who have all served in the non-profit organization, are well-known women's rights activists and human rights defenders. In response, the Taliban have issued a letter to the non-profit that condemns all workers to death. Moreover, the daughter, who has additional vulnerabilities, is now facing an imminent forced marriage by an influential family who have the support of the Taliban. Her brothers have been threatened with death if they don't hand the sister over to a marriage that is against her wishes. Because of the multiple and immediate threats to their lives, the two brothers are now in hiding and living separate from their mother and sister, who are housebound. Their situation remains extremely precarious.
Yes, definitely. The problem with the third countries is that after a certain amount of time, they will be deported. They would not extend their stay in that country. While they're waiting, they will be sent back and basically handed to the Taliban.
In fact, I had one individual, a single mom with two children, who fled to Iran. They were deported from Iran, and luckily they were able to bribe some people at the border so that they wouldn't be handed to the Taliban. They still managed to get in the country and to somehow get back. They slipped out of the country back to Pakistan, from where they managed to get out.
As mentioned, it's a very harrowing journey. It's very dangerous and fraught with all kinds of risk. If there was a possibility of helping people while in the country and providing them with some kind of mechanism to get out, using temporary visas and so on, it would be unbelievably amazing. It would save so much time and so many lives, for sure.
:
I call this meeting back to order.
I would like to welcome our second panel this evening. On behalf of the committee members, I welcome Sally Armstrong, journalist by profession; and the former chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Sima Samar, who is not here yet. From Human Rights Watch, we have Heather Barr, associate director.
On behalf of the committee, I welcome all of you.
You will each have five minutes. Please respect the time.
We'll begin with Ms. Armstrong, for five minutes, please.
[Translation]
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you tonight.
[English]
I think we are among the last to speak and I'm pretty pleased about that. I don't usually like being last, but in the last few days, we have managed to see evidence, very clear evidence, that the Taliban have not moderated. They are the same hateful, misogynist, mostly illiterate thugs that they were when I first met them soon after they took over in 1996.
I am a journalist. I covered them then, and I have covered Afghanistan ever since, so I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to address your committee tonight to bring facts as I know them that you can deliberate.
I have three points to make: the Taliban, the Afghans and the Canadians.
First, we have the Taliban. They were born out of a system that was created by misery and poverty. They were educated at madrasahs in Pakistan, where they learned hatred and misogyny. They couldn't govern then, when they took over in 1996, and then cannot govern now, but this time, they sold themselves as “moderated” and they did that to a world that had been coached by former president of the United States Donald Trump and his gang to begin to overlook Afghanistan.
I can tell you that from mid-August, when they strutted into Kabul, my social media platforms, my WhatsApp and and my Messenger have been filled with mind-jarring videos of what the Taliban are doing: whipping young women and handing the whip from man to man to man around a circle while the women scream for mercy and suffer the pain of the whipping. Besides that, the Taliban, as they took each village, demanded a list of all the girls over the age of 14 and all the widows under the age of 44 to give to their soldiers because, according to them, they're allowed four each that God told them they had the right to have.
These are the miscreants that former American president Donald Trump negotiated with, and his actions in ignoring the Afghan government—which certainly had problems of its own—and elevating these thugs as conquerors whipped them into a frenzy to make demands such as releasing hardened criminals, murderers, into the community. Also, they kept saying they had moderated their views, although whenever they were asked, “How do you now view sharia law?”, they wouldn't answer the question.
Pundits refer to the Taliban as a rigid version of sharia law. That's not so. There's not a word in the Quran to support what the Taliban have done. Then and now, what they've done is that they've hijacked their own religion for political opportunism. They got away with it then, and they're getting away with it now. What do they do with it? They thrash girls to show they're serving God. The only difference today is that they've been joined by discontented jihadis from around the world, men who couldn't give a fig about the Geneva Conventions or military codes of conduct.
Let's talk about the Afghans. Imagine saying that the Afghans couldn't defend themselves. It makes me think that in one year the scientists found a vaccine to save all the people in the whole world, but in 20 years, their politicians and the politicians from the countries that came, presumably, to help them could not find the path to peace. How can anyone blame those innocent people, who were totally sold out by their warlords, by their tribal leaders, by their own government and, frankly, by all of us?
Now let's talk about the Canadians—the true north. As you know, it has been said that our 20 years there were a failure. Well, I can tell you something about those 20 years. I can tell you that while your tax dollars were at work, the life expectancy in Afghanistan went from 47 years to 63 years. That's not a failure. That's a miracle.
Then, when they were in trouble and we all went away and said, “You're on your own now”, Canada said, “We'll take the vulnerable ones, we'll take them fast, and over time we'll take 40,000.” That didn't happen. It didn't happen because IRCC either was incompetent in doing its job or chose not to do its job. There are so many excuses. One of them said to me, “Well, we're not digitalized, you know.” In 2022? That's pretty shameful. Or it's “We're overworked” or “We're overwhelmed.” None of these are excuses.
:
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
I am Sima Samar. I'm a medical doctor by training, but I spent all of my life defending human rights and fighting for equality for women in my country. Among my other responsibilities, I was the first Minister of Women's Affairs after the 2001 fall of the Taliban, and served as the chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission for 17 years.
Afghanistan has been at war for 44 years. It began with the coup by the pro-USSR Afghans, followed by the military invasion by the USSR in 1979, and the war continues with the Taliban military takeover of Afghanistan for the second time. Unfortunately, the western and Arab countries chose the most conservative group of Afghans to train, equip and support in the fight against communism.
Women became the main victims of war. Since they were not carrying a gun and were not an active element of the war, they were not seen as necessary to be included in decision-making, and they experienced restrictions on their freedoms and rights. We witnessed the killing of our loved ones, the destruction of our property and our social fabric, forced displacement, and the degradation of our position in society during the past years of conflict. However, we still stand for our rights and freedoms and struggle to protect our human dignity in these most difficult times.
You have all watched the scary scenes in Afghanistan, after the Taliban took over, in the media and on social media, but the situation is so much worse than what you see. Most of the time, I cannot find words to describe it. Imagine the level of desperation needed to sell your children or your organs to feed the rest of the family.
Afghanistan is a collective failure of Afghanistan, the Afghan government, the Afghan people and the international community. It has been a failure of accountability, the rule of law, justice and a commitment to human rights.
Twenty years of international community engagement gave some space for the improvement of human rights and women's rights, and a space to exercise basic democratic and political rights in Afghanistan. However, these advancements for women's rights and human rights were sacrificed for political advantage in Afghanistan and abroad.
History has shown that if you want to destroy a nation, you do three things.
First, you make half of the population inferior and second-class citizens. In this way, you start the mentality of male superiority, and the women are inferior in the family, which then transfers to the whole society, including the political leadership.
Second, you destroy the education system in the country. People who want to control the population, of course, can easily control the uneducated people.
The third action to destroy a nation is to devalue human rights and principles, equality and the rule of law. When there is no respect for human rights and the rule of law, then violations of human rights become a daily practice.
During this violent conflict, the people in my country have been caught between the extreme left, which is pro-USSR and communist, and the extreme right, which is the Taliban. Currently, the people who are in power practically ignore Afghanistan's obligation to the human rights conventions that were ratified by Afghanistan.
The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is very serious. Many have been displaced. People cannot find food or shelter. Most have no income or access to job opportunities. The humanitarian crisis got worse with a governance and economic crisis, on top of the drought and the COVID pandemic, which had already devastated the people.
My recommendations are as follows.
First, humanitarian aid is a temporary solution to save lives, but there is a report of unequal distribution of the relief program. Some of the Hazara districts are receiving very little, as the Hazara-headed NGOs were not included in the distribution. There has been no transparent and equal distribution of relief to the people in need. There should be no tolerance for corruption or discrimination.
Second, women should be involved in all levels—on policy, on distribution and on receiving the aid—and also people with disabilities and people who are internally displaced.
Third, human rights values and principles should not be negotiated away under any circumstances. Respect for culture, religion and even sovereignty of the country should not be used as an excuse.
Fourth, accountability and justice should be part of the agenda pressed with the Taliban. One of the reasons for our collective failure is lack of attention to issues of accountability and justice for international crimes, which has promoted a culture of impunity—
Thanks for holding this hearing, and thanks for inviting me. If I look a bit sleepy, that's because it's 4:30 in the morning in Pakistan, where I am, but I felt I couldn't miss a chance to talk with you.
The human rights situation in Afghanistan, as Dr. Samar said, is deteriorating. It's going from extremely bad to even worse, with new signs of this every day, including extrajudicial killings and abductions, censorship and intimidation of the media, and violations of women's rights.
As you know, on Wednesday, the Taliban extended the ban on girls' secondary education. On Friday, they began blocking women from leaving the country without a male family member escorting them. On Sunday, they segregated the parks and blocked foreign media. The Taliban are systemically violating women's rights to work, study, protest, speak, travel, access health care, live free from violence and have a political voice. There's no reason to think there aren't more crackdowns coming.
I want to talk about what Canada, as a country with a feminist foreign policy, should do in this crisis. As you know, Canada is one of four countries that sent troops to Afghanistan in the last 20 years and that also have a feminist foreign policy. The others are France, Germany and Sweden. These four countries have a special responsibility to Afghan women and girls.
The crisis happening in Afghanistan right now is the most serious women's rights crisis in the world. It's the most serious women's rights crisis the world has faced since 1996, when the Taliban took over the last time. If feminist foreign policy doesn't mean standing with Afghan women right now, in this crisis, it begs the question of what feminist foreign policy means, and risks the conclusion, “Not much”.
For the last seven and a half months, there's been inadequate leadership, inadequate coordination and inadequate political will, globally, applied to defending women's rights in Afghanistan. The Taliban's actions in the last week should help drive greater political will and coordination, but many have been looking to the United States for leadership. It's clear now that leadership is not coming from that quarter. It's time for the countries that have pledged to have a feminist foreign policy, including Canada, to fill that gap.
There aren't any easy solutions, but there are actions that Canada can and should take.
First, I listened to your previous panel talking about the resettlement of Afghans. It's absolutely clear that Canada should urgently assist Afghans who can't live safely in Afghanistan to resettle, and it should urge other countries to do the same. People at heightened risk include human rights defenders—including women's rights defenders—women who were in high-profile and non-traditional roles, members of the LGBT community, and journalists.
Here in Pakistan, I hear every day from Afghans who are trying to make their way to safety, some of whom are still in Afghanistan, some of whom are stranded here in Pakistan, and many of whom sound suicidal. Some of them are specifically waiting on Canada, and waiting and waiting. Canada has the power to help them survive this crisis and rebuild their lives.
I also want to talk about how to help make life bearable for people in Afghanistan. The international community needs to take a set of coordinated steps together, and Canada should be a leader in that process. There are four steps.
The first is to deny the Taliban legitimacy, end the exemption on the travel ban for their leaders, stop having meetings with them outside Afghanistan, end high-level meetings, end photo ops with them, and only send delegations to meet them that are at least half women and include Afghan women.
The second is to do everything possible to protect human rights defenders, including the women, girls and men who are coming out to protest the secondary school ban. Speak up immediately and loudly when activists are abused, abducted or detained.
The third is to adjust your funding decisions. Don't fund discrimination. Fund only programs—for example, parts of the education system—that equally serve women, men, girls and boys, and invest in alternative education to assist girls who have been shut out of school.
The fourth point—my last point—is, don't punish all Afghans for Taliban abuses. Dr. Samar talked about the humanitarian crisis. People are starving in Afghanistan because of decisions made in the White House and other foreign capitals. Donors must do everything possible to meet humanitarian needs and unblock Afghanistan's economy so that it can function, while also maintaining pressure on the Taliban over human rights.
The tragedy unfolding for women and girls in Afghanistan right now has risks for all of us. If the Taliban can do this with little international response, it will embolden enemies of women's rights everywhere: in this region, in your region, everywhere. Feminist foreign policy has to mean feminist solidarity and, right now, the people who need Canada's solidarity most desperately are Afghan women and girls.
Thank you.
Thanks again to the witnesses for clearly highlighting how urgent it is for Canada to step up and do what we can to help these Afghan women and children, all Afghans who are in dire need, and the human rights defenders.
I agree with you, Ms. Armstrong. In 20 years, we did make a difference, in that there's a whole generation of women and girls who got an opportunity they'd never had before, and I honestly believe that some of them down the road will help take Afghanistan to the next steps. That's the seed of optimism, if I can have any with how terrible the situation is.
My first question is for you, Ms. Barr. It's about Pakistan, where you're situated, and the importance of the pressure that's coming. Is there pressure within Pakistan itself about the safety network there for those Afghans who are getting out? They are either being turned back.... Is the Taliban putting pressure, through its networks, to target these individuals? The previous witnesses talked about those hit lists that are out there. They're going after these human rights defenders, these targeted minorities, etc.
Can you expand on how important it is to act urgently? What's the situation of support in Pakistan?
:
First, it is really important to work on a mechanism to monitor things properly, and that can be done through the UN and NGOs that are working in the field in the local communities.
The second point is that we are aware of the very serious situation of humanitarian crisis, but now we should try to involve.... It should be a condition to the Taliban that the international community will not give humanitarian relief to the people unless there are women who are making decisions, who are responsible for its delivery and who are receiving it. They have to accept that, and they will accept that, because there's a lot of pressure on them. I think that is really important.
The third point, which I insist on, is that the international community should be really strong on human rights. As Heather Barr and my colleague have both said, we worked hard in order to implement some of the principles of human rights in Afghanistan, and that is all gone. If the Taliban wants to be recognized by the international community, they have obligations and they have to accept human rights. There should not be a negotiation on human rights with the Taliban. It should be clear.
The fourth point, which I again insist on, is accountability and justice for the crimes they committed, including arbitrary killing, torture every day, arbitrary arrest and the violation of human rights. The only country in the world that officially banned women's and girls' education is Afghanistan. Is that acceptable? If that cannot be counted as war crimes or crimes against humanity....
I also thank the witnesses.
We recently learned that the Taliban regime will ban young girls from attending school and that some parents are selling their underage daughters. In my opinion, this is practically a crime against humanity. We know very well that women's rights are not respected.
[English]
Before I go further and ask my question, with all respect to Ms. Armstrong, when you end your comments by saying that either the IRCC is incompetent or they don't choose to do so, I categorically refute that. I can assure you that they are very competent, and they have a strong will to do so, but let me give you some of the issues.
First of all, if you compare it to Syria or to Ukraine, the situation is not the same. Getting out of Afghanistan is a terrible process. In Syria, they were recognized by the United Nations refugee commissioner. You know very well that in Afghanistan more than 2.6 million persons have been displaced.
[Translation]
Canada has taken in the largest share of refugees and is committed to resettling these people. For over three years, Canada has been a world leader in this area. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration must view the safety of Canadians as a priority.
If we speed up the process and let anyone into Canada, can you guarantee that no Taliban or Islamic State people will enter Canada? That would be a security problem. That responsibility rests on the shoulders of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and all levels of government in Canada.
Ms. Armstrong, these are the questions I would like to ask you.
What can the international community do to help these women and girls and to reduce the number of displaced people and refugees?
Can you name one country in the world that has done more for Afghans than Canada?
:
Is your question to me?
I agree with what you said. This is our wheelhouse. Canada is terrific at this. We've shown it over and over again. Communities across this country and spiritual centres can do it.
I can tell you, sir, that I have been trying to get Afghans out of Afghanistan since August. I have a paper trail as long as you like to show that IRCC does not respond, or they ask a question and then don't respond or they don't issue the letters required. They are simply not doing the job they're supposed to do. You seem to be angry that I'm pointing that out. Well, I can imagine how upset people whose lives are at risk are when they're getting these nonsensical forms and they're not getting a reply. I don't understand why that is happening. I have had meetings with people there who say, “We're overwhelmed. We have too much work.” Then hire more people.
I feel your anger with what I said, but I stand by what I said. Canadians are good at this. We are, I dare say, the best in the world at bringing in people, resettling them, restarting their lives, but if we can't get them here, then we can't do that for them.
I believe the government needs to put a great deal of attention and effort into IRCC, even if it takes money, so they can do the job that Canadians expect them to do.
I thank all the witnesses who are appearing to contribute to this study, which is very important.
I don't think the witnesses are here to be berated or hectored. I think everybody is here to contribute to this study, which is to look at the current humanitarian crisis and what can be done now and in the short term. This is more important than any little partisan war.
Ms. Armstrong, you were questioned by my colleague Mr. El-Khoury. I would like to know what priority you think should be reflected in the recommendations of this report. This report is important because it will determine what needs to be done now and in the future for the people of Afghanistan, and how Canada can help them.
What do you think that priority is?
I will then ask Ms. Samar and Ms. Barr the same question.
:
I'll answer first what my first priority would be. I would really like to see Canada reaching out to France, Germany and Sweden, and working together to step in and guide where feminist foreign policy should be taking global policy for all countries on Afghanistan.
It is worth mentioning how much consensus there is across countries about the fact that what the Taliban is doing on women's rights, and other human rights, is beyond the pale. We've seen condemnations over the school ban from the OIC, Turkey, and Qatar. Everyone agrees. What's missing is leadership, and I want those four countries to provide that.
In terms of your question about operating on the ground, we don't actually have anyone in country. We're having a very hard discussion about whether we can go or not, because the risk is not to us, but to the people we would talk to. We are very afraid that if we went and interviewed people, and did research in Afghanistan, the Taliban would retaliate against the people we spoke with, and we would have no ability at all to protect them. That is one of the constraints we are facing, more than the issue about being classified as a terrorist group.
That's a very hard thing to figure out. For the moment, we've been doing our research remotely in ways that still bring a lot of security challenges. We're seeing a lot of concerns about the monitoring of people's phones, social media, and so on. It definitely feels like there is a net tightening in some very frightening ways.
:
Absolutely. I went through this process myself, trying to assist one particular family and trying to get help from UNHCR here in Islamabad. You go to the website, and it says you can't come to its office without an appointment. To get an appointment, you have to call a particular number. I called that number 29 times. Most of the time, it just rang and no one answered. Three times someone answered, and then hung up on me.
I'm a privileged white American lawyer who works for an NGO, so I tweeted about it, and somebody sent me a phone number of a friend who works at UNHCR. I was able to get an appointment that way, but that's not a route available to Afghans who come here and don't necessarily speak English or Urdu, and can't get a SIM card if they don't have a valid visa. It's impossible.
Another friend of mine was similarly trying to help a family get to the UNHCR, so they could register. She said she was calling the same number, and she got through the 258th time she called. That's a completely unworkable system that's set up to stop people from accessing it.
Absolutely, Canada should waive that requirement.
You know, even though we're far away from it here in Canada, MPs get drawn into this too. I have an example of a letter I received, which I will read: “Please save my life and my family. We are in a bad mental and physical condition and I live in a secret place in a bad security situation. House-to-house searches have begun in different parts of Afghanistan, and it is possible for us to be captured and killed by the terrorist Taliban at any moment. I sent an email to your country's immigration office. Only one email came in and no other confirmation email came to reassure me and my family. Please, please, please, save me and my family.” That was sent directly to me.
Ms. Armstrong and Ms. Barr, you both gave some examples similar to this. This is not an uncommon situation, from what I can see.
Ms. Armstrong, you were quoted as saying, “I am not one who likes to criticize my government.” You actually just mentioned that. You said, “I think governing is a hard job and they're in the business of trying to please most of the people all of the time and that's very tough to do. But what happened here was a neglect of duty.”
I'm just wondering if you could comment a bit more on that. How much of what we're seeing here is created by the Taliban versus a neglect of duty? What are your thoughts on that?
To all our witnesses, thank you for everything you've been doing.
Ms. Armstrong, Ms. Barr said that we should resettle those who can't live safely in Afghanistan, except that we know that all of the women and girls can't live safely in Afghanistan, and we can't resettle every single woman and girl in Afghanistan right now. You've been working on the ground through the repression of women's rights, going full circle to being able to see women go to school and be members of Parliament, and now we're going backwards, which must be devastating for you.
What specific options does Canada have to improve the lives of those women and girls who can't flee the country? Women can't even leave right now if they're not accompanied by a man, so it wouldn't matter what we did at Immigration. How can we support those women and girls who are left in Afghanistan right now?
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I am Wadood Dilsoz, joining you today from the traditional and unceded land of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh that people call Vancouver. I am a member of the Afghan community and have volunteered with the Afghan Canadian Association of B.C. since 2005.
I am also a community activist, mostly involved in refugee settlement support and advocacy for Afghan refugees and our community members. Our group is called Afghan Community Vancouver. It includes 1,200 families, and we also have a Facebook page that has over 4,600 followers.
Since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, we have received hundreds of phone calls. I was in contact with the majority of these vulnerable families, men and women, requesting help from our community and our government, and we have a list of these individuals who fall into the categories that our government announced as at risk and who could be resettled to Canada, including women activists, members of parliament at the provincial councils, journalists, prosecutors, judges, female doctors and nurses who work in military hospitals, Canadian Forces contractors, Canadian embassy employees, and volunteers and officers who were trained by and worked with the Canadian military.
The local Afghan community is grateful for the solidarity and commitment received from the government. What I want to emphasize today is the need to facilitate the resettlement of those at risk. The UNHCR designation overseas that is needed for the resettlement takes a very long time. Families who have done their biometrics in Pakistan have been waiting months for the response.
As examples, I have Bizhan Aryan and Naseer Fayaz, well-known TV anchors who escaped to Pakistan and were given their first appointment with UNHCR in June of this year. That's a very long wait time.
During the Syrian crisis, sponsorship of refugees from within the country was allowed. That's not the case for Afghans. Although for both crises, resettlement of 40,000 refugees was considered, Afghanistan's population is two times higher than Syria's, and we had a military presence in Afghanistan.
The temporary resident program and the issuance of work permits and study permits are part of the response to the Ukrainian crisis, but they haven't been considered in the response to the Afghan crisis. Canadian involvement in Afghanistan has been very profound in the past 20 years, and we had a military presence in the country that has created close ties between the two countries.
The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces supported the Canadian mission and were fighting international terrorism shoulder to shoulder with Canadians. We have abandoned those soldiers and officers, who became the victims of wrong politics in Afghanistan and who have been targeted and killed on a daily basis in the past seven months. We do not have them in the at-risk category for resettlement to Canada. This could be reviewed and changed.
The Afghan community requests the following: eliminate refugee documentation requests, increase the number of refugees, ease the process of acquiring temporary resident status or work and study visas for Afghans, allow sponsorship of refugees from within Afghanistan, include military personnel in the at-risk category to be considered for resettlement, and support local Afghan organizations to become allies in refugee settlement and integration.
Last, the Afghan community of Vancouver is ready to collaborate with IRCC to provide support to new refugees on their settlement and integration journey in a culturally safe way.
Thank you very much.
:
Good evening, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and appear before the Special Committee on Afghanistan this evening.
My name is Friba Rezayee. I was born and raised in Afghanistan. I was one of the first Afghan women to compete at the Olympic Games, in 2004 in Athens, and I am also the first Afghan woman Olympian to participate and compete in a combat sport. I am now the founder and executive director of Women Leaders of Tomorrow. We are a registered non-profit society in Vancouver, B.C. Our mandate is to empower women and girls through sports and education.
Following the return of the Taliban in August 2021, we have received countless messages from Afghan women and girls begging us to save their lives by helping them leave Afghanistan. Among them were—and still are—successful female athletes from the volleyball, cycling and judo teams. We were successful in assisting 148 Afghan women students to be evacuated to the United States, with the help of American humanitarian organizations.
However, the response from the Canadian government has been extremely disappointing. The IRCC's bureaucratic policies have made it impossible for Afghan female athletes to reach safety in Canada.
On November 25, 2021, I wrote a letter to the Right Honourable explaining the dire situation of our female athletes and describing the human rights violations now occurring in Afghanistan. The entire Canadian women's soccer team—gold medallists from Tokyo 2020—signed my letter.
The situation for female athletes is dire in Afghanistan. Members of our teams have been threatened by the Taliban with a punishment of 110 lashings in public or the death penalty. A female member of our volleyball team, Mahjabin Hakimi, was murdered under highly suspicious circumstances when the Taliban captured the capital.
The Taliban government forbids women in sports, as it is contrary to their strict interpretation of sharia law. They have suppressed all athletic participation of women in public. This was the Taliban's first decree. The Taliban is hunting from door to door and looking for women athletes and women who advocated for women's rights. If Canada does not evacuate them soon, they will die.
Canada played a vital role in Afghanistan by advancing women's and girls' empowerment and education. Afghans are devastated to see that our rights and freedoms were halted overnight. The Canadian government promised to evacuate women leaders, human rights defenders and women athletes. Thousands of Afghan families have been evacuated to Canada, but only 15 female athletes.
Many of our athletes are also students who want to pursue their higher education in Canada. These are the best and brightest young Afghans. Multilingual, educated and ambitious, they have overcome cultural and economic hardships—especially the women—to achieve ambitious goals. They have risked seizure, physical attacks and death to fight for equality, the right to an education and the rule of law, which Canadians take for granted here. They understand at a visceral level the fragility of democracy.
Women Leaders of Tomorrow has helped many Afghan women to obtain full-ride scholarships to Canadian universities, but their study permits and student visas have been denied by the IRCC on the grounds that they are unlikely to return to Afghanistan. Nine women engineers are completing their studies in Kazakhstan. They want to complete master's degrees at Canadian universities to qualify and work in their professions. Their non-renewable Kazakh visas will expire in August of this year. What will happen to them? They can't return home.
We call on the Canadian government to honour its long-standing promises to these Afghan women scholars, athletes and human rights defenders by actively assisting their entry into Canada and by instructing the IRCC to issue study permits to fully funded Afghan refugee students.
The U.S. Doha agreement represented—
I'm honoured to be part of this hearing, and I look forward to sharing my perspective from Afghanistan on what we have been going through.
I want to start with a small story from my experience. I work with a group of 200 women on a daily basis in Afghanistan. These are women peace-builders and women leaders—women who have not been in the media. These are the women who have actually stopped suicide bombers and worked with the mothers who stopped suicide bombers. These are the women who actually stopped madrasas from teaching suicide terrorism to kids, and these are the women who have gone to the Taliban jails and freed prisoners. So these are like women leaders in the provinces. I won't get into more details than that, due to concerns for their security.
The organization I run and its partnership with Canada have been waiting for so many years—at least the past six or seven years—in Afghanistan. There is one experience I would like to recall. Some Canadian military members wanted to talk to women to see how they could actually start looking at issues of women, peace and security, which is a Canadian mandate, but also as part of their engagement with Afghans. I took a group of 15 women in Kandahar by bus from the city to the airport so they could meet the members of the military. I won't go into further details. Imagine 15 women who took that risk, because going to a military airport was not just risking their lives but for a woman it was considered to be literally like prostitution, and she would literally have been stoned to death. But these women took the risk, because they were working with the mission that we needed to engage women in the security sector. That's what my organization focused on. Today, all 15 of those women are in Afghanistan and living in a very difficult situation, hiding from one province to the other.
For the past six years, through the Canada fund, my organization was able to get around 10,000 women into the Afghan police. We had a formal engagement with Canada and the Ministry of the Interior, and we got women into NATO training programs and also into the police forces. Canada has had a long-standing women, peace and security plan and mandate.
We thought this would actually continue, but I don't see what happened on August 15 as an isolated event. It didn't just happen overnight. I'm actually surprised when I hear officials and parliamentarians say that they were taken by surprise. Nobody listened to us women. We had been talking about it. We had been telling the policy-makers and the global leaders that things were going so wrong in Afghanistan and to please listen to the women and not to make deals with a group that excluded the Afghan government.
The Doha deal was the start of Afghanistan's political surrender. It was not August 15. It was the Doha deal that actually gave legitimacy to a group that did not even include the Afghan government as a signatory, and that was when things started getting much worse in local communities. As an organization working in the local communities, we started reporting on the fall of different districts and provinces, even right before August last year.
I would like to thank Canada for the announcement regarding the Afghan refugees. Some of my colleagues have made it to Canada after six or seven months of being in Albania, or having been evacuated directly from Kabul, so we are grateful for this big support, but at the same time I would also like to echo the concerns I heard from the previous panels in terms of the lack of response. My own parents had to wait for seven months, during which we never heard anything from IRCC about the status of their case.
I would also like to share the focus of the SIM, the special immigration program for Afghans. I would very much like the focus to expand beyond translators and also to see the number of women applicants, women leaders applicants...because in Afghanistan the translators have been mostly men with the military. It's important. I would very much ask for quotas and gender disaggregation, with the way Canada talks about women in leadership, as well as women, peace and security.
I come with—
Ms. Frogh, one of the last things you said was to listen to the women. That's good advice at the best of times. Even here in Canada, I think all of us need to take that advice. I appreciate that, and I will work very hard in my own life to use that advice.
I'm concerned about something and it has to do with the facts. If you look at some facts, the government has promised 40,000 Afghan refugees. told me last week at committee that we're at about 9,500 or so right now. That's in almost nine months. That's a little over 1,000 a month. He was also quite happy to tell me that there were 10,000 Ukrainians who have come to Canada in three months. That's a much higher rate.
I would like to get your opinion on this. Are we dealing with some racism issues in Canada? Is there Islamophobia? I know there are differences between people coming from Ukraine versus Afghanistan. Do you think that some of that is at play with what's going on here?
I'll start with Ms. Frogh.
:
I'm a Canadian citizen now. I'm very proud and I'm honoured to have been given the citizenship. I love it here very much, but it disappoints me to a great extent to see that racism exists and it's oblivious, to separate the Afghans from the Ukrainians, given the history and the fact that we both have been the victims of the same troll here. Afghans share the pain of Ukrainian folks, because the Russian occupation did brutal things to Afghans. The only difference is that, back then, because the world did not have social media or an Internet connection, they could not advocate and they could not broadcast in two seconds what was going on. Now, people in Ukraine can. That is, in fact, what's happening.
Here in Canada, we hear that human rights are universal, but they're not. When it comes to human rights, people pick and choose. It became a buffet for people to help certain people and not help other people. What we have been seeing—and what I have been personally witnessing since August of last year—is that one group of people has monopolized the IRCC. As Wazhma mentioned, they have only been evacuating and focusing on male interpreters. As much as we would like to see those families seek refuge and find safety in Canada, it's also important to focus on female leaders and female athletes.
Let's check the comparison. There are 9,000 families versus 15 female athletes. That is unacceptable. We need to open the category. We need to reach out, because Canada gave us a definition of people at risk. They are highly vulnerable people and people coming from ethnic minorities, such as the Hazara people, LGBTQ people and women athletes.
We need to help everybody at the same time. There's space for everyone. There's space for Ukrainian folks. There's space for women leaders.
I very much think you are also talking about the war widows. We have two million of these women who are living in different parts of the country and do not have any male members of the family, because they have lost them to the war. They literally do not have any means to get out of the country. Evacuations could be one way or, for example, there could be some special measures where they could be provided a visa to a third country, and then that third country would take the case further.
Other than that, I'm also thinking about the importance of engaging with Afghanistan, because how many people can you evacuate, how many people can you sponsor to Canada? We have a population of 40 million, so I very much think Canada needs to plan its engagement in Afghanistan if it really cares about the communities left behind.
I work with 200 women on a daily basis. There are many organizations engaged on the ground. Also, the focus should be on putting pressure on the Taliban. They need to be pressured into accepting today's Afghanistan.
:
Thank you so much, Ms. Zahid.
It's a fact that the Taliban has imposed strict sharia law on Afghan women. They require women to be accompanied by a mahram, a male guardian, as soon as they leave home.
I would suggest to IRCC that they need to focus on their job. They need to do their work, to issue those visas for the applicants who have applied. Let the Afghans figure out and take care of their business on the ground, because Afghans are very good at manoeuvring ourselves on the ground. We will take care of arranging a mahram and making sure that they will go to the airport or the border safely. All we are asking from the government is to give them those visas.
People like the ones on this panel, like me and my family, and so many other volunteers.... We call ourselves the “sleep-deprived volunteers”. We share the burden of IRCC's work, and we are providing the government with solutions, because we are doing most of the paperwork. We are the people who are helping them with the allowances, cash, money for food and rent on the ground. The government just needs to issue visas for them, that's all.
I want to thank the witnesses, again. With their expertise, we will be able to do things better and be better. That's the purpose of our study.
Ms. Frogh, your comments are very interesting, as are those of all the other witnesses.
You mentioned minorities. At the beginning of our study, we had a representative from the Hazara community. In June 2021, before the Taliban took over, Mr. Mirzad gave powerful testimony to the committee. I was particularly moved when he said that the life of a Hazara in Afghanistan is that of a death row inmate, living on probation, waiting for an imminent execution. I believe that this sentence is even truer today, as this is now the daily life of a majority of Afghans, Hazaras or not, who want to flee the country.
Can you tell us what the situation is for Hazaras, at the moment, in Afghanistan?
:
Thank you so much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.
There have been only 15 female athletes so far. Our volleyball team, cycling team and judo team are all in hiding, either in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. They're actually sending me messages every day. Many of them have applied to IRCC, and they even received letters and correspondence from IRCC, but they still haven't received their visas to be able to travel to Canada.
One good example is that of one of our judo athletes, whose house was raided by the Taliban. The Taliban searched her house looking for any documents she had as an athlete ID, so the Taliban could use it against her.
We have an 18-year-old waiting for her study permit in Pakistan. She has been accepted at an all-girls boarding school in Canada with a full-ride scholarship, and she wants to become the first Afghan female president. She is stuck in Pakistan and she's all by herself. She has completed her biometrics, all her applications and everything. She's just in limbo now. I would love to see her receive a response from the Canadian High Commission or from the third party in Abu Dhabi where they process student visas.
:
Thank you so much for asking that question, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe. I appreciate it.
The reason the Taliban has banned women's sports is that women's sports are forbidden under the Taliban's sharia law, because they send sexual vibes to men. Women's sports bring visibility to women's bodies, and that is haram—according to their interpretation of sharia law, not the modern Islam. Therefore, they're at high risk. They're in danger.
One of the members of our volleyball team was murdered suspiciously when the Taliban took over, and the rest are in hiding. One of the members of our volleyball team recently sent me a picture of herself. The Taliban found her and they beat her and she had bruises all over her body.
What I would like to see is for Canada to honour its promises. Canada promised that they will evacuate women leaders and human rights defenders. Athletes are human rights defenders. I was a human rights defender, because my participation at the Olympic Games as the first Afghan woman brought Afghanistan back to the world arena, to world sport, for the first time after the fall of the Taliban, and that inspired hundreds of Afghan women to join sports. It was a sports revolution.
Now we're all going backwards. When the Taliban returned, it felt like Afghanistan was hit by a giant meteorite and it set us back 30 years.
If, for example, they are given a travel authorization.... Many of my colleagues received travel authorizations during the August evacuation. If that could be provided, or temporary permits, they will arrange somehow, with all the risks, to go, or maybe even to go from Afghanistan to another country. That is one step towards addressing it.
In August and September, my organization submitted...45 women who have been working with the Canadian military in Afghanistan, who have implemented Canada fund projects with Canada's embassy. None of those women have made it to Canada, and we have not heard a word from them. Even Canada's ambassadors have been involved. They were contacting IRCC on our behalf, but there has been nothing yet.
This is a point that I'm working on every day. We have 40 million Afghans left behind, and all of them will not be evacuated, so we need to find ways to help them. One of those is that Canada needs to have a plan on how to engage with Afghanistan. One is of course the evacuation and the emigration of refugees, but at the same time, it's also about how Canada continues its engagement.
I propose a female special envoy from Canada. I request that you, the government, work on a female envoy for Afghanistan who actually starts engaging with the Taliban and starts discussions on how to get support to these women. Yes, the joblessness is challenging, and of course the humanitarian crisis is there, but also, the women's organizations are active in the country despite all the challenges, so there is a need for continued funding for them, resources for them.
:
Thank you very much, Ms. Kwan.
On behalf of the committee members, I want to thank the witnesses for the work they do in the lives of the most vulnerable and for sharing their thoughts with us today. I appreciate that. I wish you all the best.
Also on behalf of all members, I would like to thank the interpreters for staying for three long hours. I know it's not easy, particularly with the accents of people like myself.
I also want to thank the technical and support staff, as well as the clerk, the analysts and the staff from the members' offices.
It's work well done. Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.