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       Afghan refugees who supported Canada's mission in Afghanistan prepare to board buses after arriving in Canada, at Toronto Pearson International Airport on August 24, 2021.

       MCpl Genevieve Lapointe/Reuters

       Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau is asking Canadians and Afghans evacuees left behind in Afghanistan not to lose hope, and while Ottawa is not offering any concrete measures to extract them, he says Canada’s diplomats will be available to help if they can make it to a third country.

       Canada’s evacuation flights from Kabul airport ended Thursday – five days before the U.S. military is scheduled to leave – and the Canadian government has emailed and texted those who were not rescued to “shelter in place.”

       Speaking during a media briefing on Afghanistan Friday along with Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, Mr. Garneau said it’s possible that some Canadian-bound evacuees could still make it out on allies’ planes.

       He said Canada is exploring other means of extracting people from Afghanistan including “ways to get to third countries.” He could not say how many people are left behind but 8,000 Afghans applied for resettlement in Canada. Canada was able to evacuate 3,700 people but it’s not clear all these people were bound for Canada because allies were pooling flight efforts.

       The foreign affairs minister said there is still hope that Kabul airport might reopen to foreign flights even after the Taliban take full control following a scheduled August 31 withdrawal of all U.S. military forces. The militant Taliban group, designated a terrorist group in Canada, has moved swiftly to take back the country as U.S. soldiers prepare to leave after nearly 20 years.

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       “Let me be clear: we will not stop looking for other paths to bring these people home.”

       He said “regional partners” in South and Central Asia are speaking to the Taliban about “returning Kabul airport possibly in the future to more normal operations.”

       Asked if he would advise people to head by land to neighboring counties such as Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan on the south and west, Mr. Garneau declined to offer guidance on exit routes.

       “We’re asking people to stay in place at the moment to see how things evolve in the coming days. Some people may make the decision they will seek to get to a third country.”

       But he said Canadian diplomats will be ready to receive any people who can make it to adjoining countries such as Pakistan. The Taliban however controls Afghanistan’s borders and has said it does not want any more Afghan nationals to leave.

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       “We have consulates in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi and we will be waiting there for them,” Mr. Garneau said of Pakistan.

       At campaign event in Mississauga Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa is working with regional partners to “put pressure on the Taliban to allow people to leave.”

       He said the Liberal government and other allies were “surprised” how fast Taliban took over Afghanistan. He says people on the ground and around the world “thought there would be more time.”

       But he defended his government’s evacuation response, saying officials accelerated their processes for special visas for former Afghan translators, fixers and support staff, who worked for Canada’s military and diplomats.

       “Our first priority has to be and will always be getting Canadians to safety,” he told reporters. “For those Canadians, who remain unfortunately in Afghanistan, we will continue to demand both that the Taliban allow them to get out to safely but also to work with international allies and regional partners to ensure they are able to do that.”

       Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole released a video statement late Thursday night explaining what he would do with the current crisis in Afghanistan if he were prime minister.

       Mr. O’Toole says Canada should work with its allies and Afghanistan’s neighbours to help anyone who is able to flee the Taliban, work with allies to establish humanitarian and refugee corridors, and provide political and material support to Afghans who are resisting the Taliban.

       At a press conference in Corner Brook, NL on Friday the Conservative leader said material support should include intelligence, satellite imagery, logistics and flak jackets.

       “Our goal is to help people: establishing the corridors, helping the refugees and minimizing the ability for the people to be harmed by the Taliban,” Mr. O’Toole told reporters. “That’s giving material and political support that is not meant to be offensive. It’s meant to protect, its meant to provide assistance, intelligence, to help isolate and keep the Taliban away from areas where they could harm people.”

       “I’m really disappointed to see how slow he Trudeau government was, but let’s focus on helping now,” he added.

       He said Canada should work with India and Pakistan, in particular, to establish the safe corridors for aid to go into Afghanistan and refugees to flee.

       Canadian soldiers spent 13 years in Afghanistan as part of this country’s biggest combat operations since the Korean War. Canada spent tens of billions of dollars on combat, training and development, and 158 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in the deployment. During this time, Canadians built up a network of local Afghans who worked for troops and diplomats, despite the risk to their own lives from the Taliban.

       In July, as the Taliban advanced across Afghanistan, the federal government announced a special immigration program to resettle those Afghans in Canada, where they would be safe from reprisals.

       With files from Marieke Walsh

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