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Frame grab from a video posted on Facebook appears to show Canadian special forces ignoring the pleas of Afghan refugees with Canadian exit documents trying to enter Kabul's airport.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says Canada will have to withdraw its special forces soldiers and halt rescue flights at the Kabul airport within days as the August 31 deadline for the pullout of American soldiers is rapidly approaching.
Mr. Sajjan told a media briefing Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has made it clear to Canada and other allies involved in the evacuation mission in Afghanistan that they will have to leave Hamid Karzai International Airport before U.S. forces depart at the end of the month.
“Drawing down takes considerable time. It is not done overnight and comes with significant risk. As the Americans finalize their drawdown to meet their deadline, partners nations including Canada must draw down our troops, assets and aircraft ahead of the Americans,” Mr. Sajjan said. “These moves are necessary for the US to safely maintain control of the airport until their depart.”
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A senior government official told The Globe and Mail that the Canadian Armed Forces has only about three to four days to airlift people out of Kabul before the U.S. starts to reduce its military presence at Hamid Karzai International Airport. The Globe is not identifying the official, who was not authorized to discuss Canada’s response to Mr. Biden’s decision.
Once those flights stop, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau acknowledged thousands of people will be left behind, including Canadian expats and many Afghanistan interpreters and former support staff, who worked with Canada’s military and diplomacy. But Mr. Garneau pledged that Canada will honour special visas given to these Afghans and their families if they can escape to a third country once the evacuation flights end. “There is a possibility that we are not going to bring everyone we want out when the airbridge stops but our commitment is to get those Canadians, permanent residents, their families and vulnerable Afghans out of the country,” he said. “That will remain our priority in the coming months is to get them out.”
Complicating the final days of the airlift mission is word from the Taliban that they will block Afghan nationals from leaving on evacuation flights. This has only exacerbated mass panic at the airport as tens of thousands of Afghan desperately plea for safe passage out the country.
This video posted to Facebook appears to show Afghan refugees being ignored by Canadian soldiers at the Kabul airport.
Adding to the chaos are complaints from Afghans, with Canadian special visas, that Canadian troops are only letting people with Canadian passports through the security perimeter to rescue flights.
New video posted on Facebook on Wednesday appears to show Canadian special forces ignoring the pleas of Afghans claiming to have Canadian exit documents and desperately trying to get into Kabul’s airport for the final wave of evacuation flights before the United States completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 31.
The cellphone videos show several Afghans standing in water and pleading with three Canadian soldiers – they are wearing the Maple Leaf flag on their uniforms – to let them into the airport.
“They are completely ignoring our messages, our yelling and shouting, and nobody is going to take care of us,” one man says in the video.
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The Canadian government has told former Afghan translators and support staff who worked for Canada’s military and diplomats to wear red at the airport so they can be more easily identified.
“We have been watching for the last three hours. We have approved visas, but nobody is going to take care of us,” the man says. “We are waiting for the Canadian guys. We are showing them our documents and we are asking them to at least support us to get out.”
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan called the scene “heart-wrenching” but defended the Canadian soldiers, saying they are under a lot of pressure to keep the airport secure in a high-threat environment where Islamic State terrorists are operating.
“Those are heart-wrenching videos that we have seen, but there are many examples of Canadian Armed Forces who are doing tremendous work taking Afghanis to safety,” he told a news briefing Wednesday.
Jasteena Dhillon, a professor and lawyer who worked in Afghanistan for NGOs and is now aiding Afghan evacuees, told The Globe Wednesday that she got some people into the airport with printed copies of their facilitation letters, which give them permission to travel to Canada. But she said they were turned away and told that only Canadian passport holders were being accepted at that point.
Kevin Newman, a retired journalist who has been working to help evacuate Afghans, said people on the ground in Kabul are telling him that only a small contingent of Canadian soldiers is now visible at the airport.
“Our eyes and ears waiting for rescue say no Canadian Armed Forces have been seen today to protect and guide them into the processing area,” Mr. Newman said Wednesday.
Mr. Newman said the word among Afghans waiting for evacuation is that Canada’s Immigration Department very recently issued a great many exit visas, but the effort was thwarted by the Taliban, who warned Tuesday that they would stop a further exodus of Afghan nationals.
“The Taliban prevented all of them from entering the airport waiting area,” he said.
He said that among the many people stopped from approaching the airport are individuals bearing documents that appear to be Canadian.
Thousands of Afghans continue to gather outside Kabul's airport, waiting to flee the country. Reuters asked some people in the crowd if they believed the Taliban had changed. Reuters
At the Wednesday’s media briefing on Afghanistan, Maryam Monsef, the Liberal Minister for Women and Gender Equality, referred to the Taliban as “our brothers.”
She was imploring the Taliban to allow safe passage for Afghans out of the Central Asian country.
“I want to take this opportunity to speak to our brothers the Taliban,” the minister told reporters. She urged the Taliban to let Afghans leave unharmed.
Ms. Monsef was later asked if she wished to retract her remarks, but did not. “The reference to brothers is a cultural reference, of course,” Ms. Monsef said.
She noted that Muslims refer to each other as brothers and sisters and added that she continues “to believe deeply that the Taliban are a terrorist organization.”
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