The situation in Afghanistan is terrible. It is worse than it was in August, as I said a bit earlier in my answers. Poverty is rampant there. It is exacerbated by a bad government, which is doing a poor job of taking care of its population and is not recognized by any country in the world. Afghanistan is in breach of a number of international law obligations and certainly human rights obligations. So it is very difficult to deliver international assistance to the country.
That said, we have provided $145 million to a variety of UN organizations, including those related to food, such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF, which provides assistance for children. We are also working with a number of other organizations.
However, I would like to come back to questions asked by our NDP colleague Ms. Kwan and our Bloc Québécois colleague Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe about the fact that the Taliban is considered a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. I want to mention that this is a major concern for the government because it limits NGOs' ability to provide assistance directly on the ground. This is a personal concern for me, and I would really like to know what the committee's recommendations are.
It would help the Afghan people if we were able to depoliticize the issue and have a non-partisan approach.