Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen, honourable members, for allowing me to come and speak with you this evening.
My name is Brandi Hansen. I am a director for Vector Global Solutions in Canada. We're a non-profit organization. I'm also the director of operations for Ark Salus out of the United States.
We are a group of Canadians and Americans. We're mostly comprised of pilots, active duty, intelligence sector, individuals, analysts, business administration and government liaison. We were in Afghanistan in August and rescued over 1,000 Afghans prior to the gates falling in Kabul, so we have a proof of concept for evacuations. We also rescued 53 special mission wing individuals out of Uzbekistan with the co-operation of the Uzbekistan president. They are now relocated and resettled in the United States.
Our mission is global crisis response, not just to Afghanistan but on an international level.
We specialize in airlift. Our airlift has a NATO CAGE code. With an extensive past history of performance, we can land and depart in any country in the world. The charter is small; it is 180. It is not a commercial charter. We evacuate only individuals with accepted onward travel, with a clear travel path. We have a ground team. We have a logistics team with an extensive database. We have an intelligence team and a food program in Afghanistan. We also have resettlement, as well as a biometric team.
Our focus is primarily on all categories: orphans and unaccompanied minors, women, widows, targeted groups, vulnerable minorities, enduring relations—individuals who have enduring relations to the Canadian and U.S. government—and diplomatic missions. We presently have a very large diplomatic mission, with almost the entire Afghan cabinet within our care at the moment.
We evacuate frontline humanitarian defenders. We have a con-op catalogue—“con-op” is concepts of operations or missions—for Canada alone. Our objective is to identify all obstacles and come to tangible resolutions moving forward. I'm hoping to spend my time speaking with respect to the future and what we're going to be doing moving forward.
From my understanding, our objectives are biometrics, undocumented individuals, routes, airlift, intermediary countries and funding. At this moment, we're able to offer airlifts, two flights a week, 180 individuals, with onward travel—which means this would be perhaps individuals who have an enduring relationship with the Canadian government who already have applications accepted through IRCC.
Mr. Chair, please let me know if I go over my time. I have my head down in my notes.
