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Evacuees from Afghanistan arrive at Hamad International Airport in Qatar's capital Doha on Sept. 10, 2021. A flight transporting foreign evacuees, including 49 French citizens and their families arrived in Doha after flying from Kabul airport, the second charter flight carrying foreigners and Afghans since a U.S.-led evacuation ended on Aug. 30
KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images
With help from a Toronto-based charity, about 250 Afghan evacuees are now on their way to Canada, following a month-long journey to flee their country’s takeover by the Taliban.
For four weeks, amid the chaos of the last days of the war in Afghanistan, they had discreetly travelled hundreds of kilometres across the country, before reaching Pakistan overland, thanks to visas arranged by the Canadian charity, the Prince’s Trust Canada.
Most of them have crossed the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last three days, and they are expected to begin a new life in Saskatoon this fall.
The group, made up mainly of members of the Hazara minority, includes young female students, singers and martial artists, people whom the Canadian government considers vulnerable under the strict Islamic edicts of Afghanistan’s new rulers.
The Hazaras are Shiites and have a distinctive ethnic origin, making them targets for persecution by the Taliban, who practise a hardline form of Sunni Islam.
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Following the sudden collapse of Afghanistan’s pro-Western government, Canada airlifted about 3,700 Canadian nationals, former interpreters and their relatives out of Kabul. But thousands of others were stranded. Canada has committed to resettling about 21,000 Afghans.
“The last few weeks have been a roller coaster as we’ve sought to have these families get out of Afghanistan,” Mark Fell, Prince’s Trust Canada chairman, said in an interview Saturday.
The departure of the group of 250 began when Mr. Fell received a phone call from Britain on Aug. 21.
Prince’s Trust Canada is part of a network of charities set up by Prince Charles. The organization’s chief executive in London, Dame Martina Milburn, enlisted Mr. Fell to help an institution in Afghanistan that was trying to arrange for a group of Hazaras to leave the country. For security reasons, Mr. Fell didn’t identify the institution.
On Aug. 13, the federal Immigration Minister, Marco Mendicino, announced that, in addition to fast-tracking the resettlement of Afghans who helped Canada’s military, Ottawa was creating a special program for groups vulnerable under the Taliban, such as women leaders and persecuted religious minorities.
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Within a week, Mr. Fell was able to arrange visas to Canada for the group. The Hazaras were hoping to fly out of Kabul, and a small number managed to board a plane and make their way to Mexico and eventually, Canada.
“I feel safe and I have a plan for my foreseeable future,” said an Afghan woman who was part of the group that had managed to fly out of Kabul.
The woman, who asked that her full identity not be disclosed because she still has family in Afghanistan, is in quarantine in Saskatoon with her husband. She said she was a women’s rights activist, and expressed relief that her circumstances now are “completely different from my situation 25 days ago in Afghanistan.”
However, the airlift ended with the departure of the last U.S. troops on Aug. 31. Like thousands of other Afghans fearing the new government, the rest of the group of Hazaras was unable to enter Kabul’s international airport despite several attempts.
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Evacuees from Afghanistan arrive inside the terminal at Hamad International Airport in Qatar's capital, Doha, on the first flight carrying foreigners out of Kabul since the conclusion of the U.S. withdrawal last month, Sept. 9, 2021.
KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images
In a feat of logistics, the Prince’s Trust and its contacts in Afghanistan were able to relocate the group to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where scores of others trying to leave Afghanistan had been waiting for international flights to resume.
This operation, co-ordinated between people in Canada, Britain and Afghanistan over WhatsApp messaging service, involved transporting more than 200 people in small groups and keeping them out of sight from the Taliban in multiple safe houses.
The Hazaras were joined by a smaller group who also had Canadian visas, workers of the Malala Fund, the non-profit co-founded by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
When the flights out of Mazar-i-Sharif didn’t materialize, the group considered travelling to neighbouring Uzbekistan since the border crossing – a bridge over the Amu Darya river – was only an hour’s drive away. However, that border was closed.
On Sept. 10, Mr. Mendicino announced that Canada had been able to get some Afghan nationals through the border of Pakistan, opening a land route for humanitarian resettlements.
The Hazaras then headed back south and were able to enter Pakistan on 30-day visas. They are now privately hosted in the capital, Islamabad. They are expected to be processed and flown to Canada in the coming weeks.
Their resettlement in Saskatoon is supported by the federal government. The first evacuees to arrive are now in quarantine, as required by the federal government under its pandemic-control measures.
“We see them now as being safe in Pakistan and having a wonderful future ahead of them in Canada,” Mr. Fell said.
“... Bringing this young Afghan community to Canada will help make Saskatoon, and even Canada, thrive.”
As of Sept. 12, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 12,400 applications have been received under the program to resettle vulnerable Afghans and 8,200 were approved. So far, 2,200 new Afghan refugees have reached Canada, with another 800 currently in COVID-19 quarantine.
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