Afghanistan Committee on Jan. 31st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Okay—

[Rema Jamous Imseis]

I'm sorry. I didn't catch all of that question.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

I asked, are those processing delays? Also, the information you mentioned on the numbers that have been processed and the refugee claims, could that be tabled?

[Rema Jamous Imseis]

I would be happy to confirm the numbers of departures and arrivals to Canada.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you. Your time is up, Mr. Hallan.

Now I will go to the Liberals.

Between Madam Zahid and Madam Damoff, you have five minutes.

Go ahead, please.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair. I will share my time with Ms. Damoff.

My first question is for Mr. Ratwatte.

What work are you doing to ensure that women's and girls' rights are protected in Afghanistan and to make sure they receive the humanitarian aid? My riding is home to hundreds and thousands of Afghans, and I hear heartbreaking stories of their concerns about their nieces and sisters. Could you provide some information on this and the role that UNHCR is playing?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Go ahead, Mr. Ratwatte.

[Indrika Ratwatte]

Thank you, honourable member.

As our colleague from UNAMA also said, the approach has been very much as a point of advocacy first with the de facto authorities to ensure, first, that UN female staff and colleagues are able to come to work and have unhindered access to communities. I'm happy to report that for UNHCR we have about 95% of our female colleagues back in the office as part and parcel of colleagues who visit the field, do field assessments and approach communities to look at their needs. That's the first step.

The second is ongoing support and advocacy around the access for girl children: to have access to education at all levels. This is a continuing sort of advocacy that we do with all our UN partners.

Lastly, I think the most important part we do is that when we meet with communities, particularly those in the UNHCR's purvey—the internally displaced and conflict-displaced families—we focus very much our entire assistance by starting with female heads of households, girl children and women's issues. We intervene where we need to at the field level, but the assistance is also designed very much to look at their needs and mitigate their vulnerabilities.

As you rightly said, honourable member, the needs are there and, as we speak, they are very challenging. In Oslo, we did hear that now, as of March, all children, girl children, will have access to education, but I think we have to continue to be vigilant. Also, really, the next step is to ensure that women professionals and women have more access to the workplace, which remains a huge challenge.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Now we have Ms. Damoff, please.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Through you, I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being with us tonight and for the work they're doing under incredibly difficult conditions.

My question is for Mr. Messenger. I've had conversations with your organization about the challenges you've had in delivering aid on the ground. I'm wondering if you could give us some examples of what some of our Five Eyes partners are doing to deal with this issue of the Taliban being a terrorist organization and how they're able to get around that to deliver aid, some examples that we could perhaps use here in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Go ahead, Mr. Messenger.

[Michael Messenger]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for the question.

Yes, as you know, we have had constructive dialogue on the issue for several months now at various levels of government, from the responsible desk officers at Global Affairs to joint organizations and meetings with others.

You're right. In fact, I mentioned that Canada is one of the few countries in our World Vision federation that is not able to deliver aid or get Canadian funds or Canadian goods to assist in the humanitarian response. At the moment, the majority of humanitarian programming funded by the U.S., the U.K., Germany and the EU has resumed, and Australia has recently announced an exemption.

There may actually be some specific limitations on us in Canada because of our Criminal Code. I would have to look, and we'd have to consider the various carve-outs, approaches, exemptions or guidelines that have been done by the other organizations. We can certainly speak to our colleagues in those other offices to get examples of this, but it may also be a made-in-Canada solution to look at our specific legislation to determine the limitations.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I think I only have 30 seconds left, but it would probably be helpful. Maybe you could share that with us.

I'm thinking about both the short-term and the longer-term solutions to be able to get that aid and that food on the ground for those kids.

[Michael Messenger]

We can certainly provide some examples of what's happening elsewhere, as well as some of our positions and the legal counsel that we've received on how we may be able to get around the current limitations on our activities here in Canada, both in the short term and the longer term.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you. That was well under five minutes.

Next we have Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe from the Bloc for five minutes, please.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses here today.

As I said to the panel before you, what matters to us right now is the humanitarian crisis.

Mr. Messenger, I really appreciated hearing you address, in your opening remarks, the issue of the Taliban being considered a terrorist entity and how this affects your organization.

We're here to find solutions to help you provide assistance to the people. You brought up a good point. We'll look at how legislation could be changed.

Could you provide a brief rundown of the current food crisis in Afghanistan?

[Michael Messenger]

I'm going to ask my colleague who is the expert on this, Ms. McKinlay, to answer that question on our behalf.

[Julie McKinlay, Director, Fragile and Humanitarian Programs, World Vision Canada]

The food crisis in Afghanistan right now is amazingly dire. The statistics have been shared in the past. There are 24.4 million people in need—half of the population—and one in two children is at risk of starvation, so the need for immediate action is immense.

We have programming through organizations like the World Food Programme, which enables us to get those emergency nutrition supplies. We are able to provide general food baskets to meet those needs.

It's important to keep in mind that the food shortages lead to other problems. Families are making impossible decisions around who eats around the table and in their family, and if they need to sell a child into early marriage because it's one less mouth to feed. It's one of the most dire food situations.

With the drought and the challenging harsh winter conditions, it's not expected to get better; it's going to get worse much more quickly.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Ratwatte, I think that you're the expert who can answer my question, since you work for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

At the moment, a large part of the Afghan population is determined to leave the country. Can we expect a wave of migration similar to what happened in Syria, for example?

[Indrika Ratwatte]

The situation is extremely dire inside Afghanistan, as colleagues have said. However, there are two components here. One is the humanitarian crisis which, if not mitigated, will basically destroy any coping mechanisms and coping systems that Afghans have. This will lead to further internal displacement; in this case, I think it would be cross-border because the vulnerabilities are such.

Indeed, if we are unable to make those two investments.... One is the immediate humanitarian need. The second is, as we were saying and as was elaborated by my colleague Rema, looking at the humanitarian developments that wish to stabilize the populations where they are in Afghanistan. We will see flows outside for sure. That, I'm afraid, will not just be to the neighbouring countries; it might be beyond, because the coping mechanisms of Afghans are hanging by a thread, as the secretary general said last week at the UN Security Council.

The primary effort should be to make all the investments to stabilize Afghans within Afghanistan, and at the same time support the host countries that we are able to, should we—God forbid—have a new influx of refugees that the host countries are willing and able to take.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you.

Do I have any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

You have one minute.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I'll keep it short.

Mr. Varughese, you're on the ground. What's happening to members of the LGBT community in Afghanistan right now? There has been a great deal of concern about this since the Taliban came back to power.

Can you tell us what's currently happening on the ground?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Go ahead, Mr. Varughese.