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       Afghan people sit as they wait to leave the Kabul airport in Kabul on Aug. 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule.

       AFP Contributor#AFP/AFP/Getty Images

       Canada is engaged with the United States and other allies to evacuate as many Canadians and Afghans as possible from Kabul, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the situation is “exceedingly dangerous” with Taliban forces in control of the capital.

       A Canadian Armed Forces Globemaster transport plane is at the U.S. airbase in Kuwait awaiting approval from U.S. commanders to fly into Kabul.

       “We are working very closely with the U.S., the U.K. and other allies to establish ways in which we are going to be able to get more and more people out of Afghanistan in the coming weeks, but we have to recognize the situation is extremely fluid and exceedingly dangerous,” Mr. Trudeau told a news conference Monday.

       Speaking at a campaign stop in Quebec, Mr. Trudeau said that, as of Monday, at least 807 Afghans had been evacuated and 500 had arrived in Canada.

       He said he had been briefed on the situation in Afghanistan before he began a day of campaigning for the Sept. 20 federal election.

       Canadian embassy officials have been flown out of Kabul, while Canadian special forces soldiers remain to help secure the city’s airport and assist with the evacuation. The priority now is the safety of Canadians and dual citizens working with NGOs and the United Nations.

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       “There are also a number of Canadian citizens and dual Canadian-Afghan citizens on the ground who we are working closely with and tracking, as much as is possible in the chaos right now, and very much prioritizing the evacuation of them,” Mr. Trudeau said.

       The focus will also be on Afghan interpreters and fixers – the local people who provided assistance and services to the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. Those whose applications for resettlement have been processed will be put on available planes, Mr. Trudeau said, adding that the processing is now being done remotely because of the danger of having Canadian diplomatic personnel in Kabul.

       There are an estimated 1,000 interpreters still living in Kabul, as well as about 100 Gurkhas who had been under contract to guard the Canadian embassy over the past 15 years.

       “If we can see the airfield properly secured, we will be there among our partners to help evacuate Afghans,” Mr. Trudeau said.

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       The Prime Minister would not say whether Canada would recognize the Taliban as the new rulers of Afghanistan. But he did urge them to allow people to leave the country.

       Canada has also promised to take in another 20,000 Afghan civilians, many of whom are in refugee camps.

       Mr. Trudeau was asked why Canada did not move faster to get people out of Afghanistan, especially after U.S. President Joe Biden announced in April that he was pulling U.S. forces out of the country.

       He said the government had been working on plans to get people out but was taken aback by the rapid advance of Taliban forces throughout Afghanistan.

       “People in country and around the world have been dismayed by the speed at which things happened,” he said.

       Retired Canadian major-general David Fraser, who once commanded more than 2,000 NATO coalition troops in Afghanistan, estimated there are still about 800 Afghans of interest to Canada who are stuck there – the former translators, drivers and cooks who helped the Canadian military during its 13-year deployment in Afghanistan.

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       People try to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021.

       STRINGER/Reuters

       Mr. Fraser said he’s glad Ottawa pulled together a plan to bring some Afghans to Canada – but marvels that he and other retired generals had to write a letter to the government this summer requesting just that.

       “Why is it that three retired guys have to come up with a letter and ask for assistance?”

       Mr. Fraser said Afghans who worked for foreign governments and militaries are worried that their pathway out of the country has disappeared.

       He said he suspects the Canadian government is asking the U.S. to ferry more Afghans out on Canada’s behalf.

       “That would be the conversation I would be having with the Americans,” Mr. Fraser said.

       “The United States seems to be the only country in the world with the resources and the will to get people out. God bless them for doing that.”

       He said he’s telling Afghans to “go find the Americans to get out.”

       The retired general said the Taliban have taken control faster than expected.

       “Nobody in the international community knew that Afghanistan was going to unravel this fast. People thought it was weeks and months instead of hours and days.”

       He said that, even amid the election campaign, Mr. Trudeau and his government have an obligation to do more. “You want Canada back on the world stage? The world is listening.”

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