Thank you very much. My apologies once again. I'm used to my home office, with the technology there.
My initial take on everything was, as previously mentioned, the complication of the paperwork and the format in which it had to be done. These folks, who didn't have Internet access, were in provinces outside of Kabul. To get Internet access, they were going to Internet cafés—which at that point, no doubt, had Taliban or sympathizers—to fill out paperwork articulating how they helped Canada join the war against the Taliban, so that they could eventually get their immigration approved and get on those planes.
One thing I was shocked and appalled by was the conflicting details given to the interpreters and their families. One was about medical screenings that had to be done before biometrics were collected. The directions they were given made no sense at all. For example, they were told they had to fill out a special medical screening form and have it done at a German hospital prior to being able to move on with the process. The email I have regarding that particular thing was from August 6. The German hospital had told them it would be six weeks to get in, if ever. I intervened and asked why medical screenings were even being done at that point in time in order to carry forward with the biometrics collection and vetting, at which point I got conflicting details from staff at the IRCC.
I involved MP Michael Cooper, here in Alberta, to advocate on my behalf as well. At the end of the day, the IRCC came back a few days later and said it was a mistake on its end. These screenings were not required at a German hospital in Kabul. The paperwork could, in fact, proceed as it should have days or weeks earlier.
When, eventually, they got through that screening process and were making their way on their own to Kabul for evacuation, they had little or no detail as to what was going to happen next, when the planes were leaving and how to get on those planes. I received quite a few emails over those days and weeks from about 13 of Sangeen's family members who were moving themselves across Afghanistan, trying to navigate through Taliban checkpoints to get to Kabul. Then, once in Kabul, there wasn't clear, concise direction given as to what would happen next and how to get on those planes.