Afghanistan Committee on March 21st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

You have 30 seconds.

[Maria Toorpakai Wazir]

I would like to say something about this.

Recently, when all the things that recently happened as the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, I know that my dad and some of my friends in the U.S. asked me to help some of the high-profile Afghans to evacuate. We helped five families, 37 people. My dad went into Kabul with some other men. As we are from Waziristan, they are well respected in that way within the Taliban. When we went there, it was all over in the area, and people were very scared.

My dad would contact them and pick up each family separately—no luggage, nothing with them, just whatever they could grab. We couldn't take them through the Torkham border. We wanted them to come to Pakistan first, but they did not have any documents, anything, so the Torkham border couldn't do anything. Then we brought them to Spin Boldak, which is almost a day.... They travelled all night—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thanks—

[Maria Toorpakai Wazir]

And the next day they arrived in the evening. And that's how it happened. It was very difficult, but we brought—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much.

Now we are going to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, for six minutes.

Please go ahead.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to see you in person.

I want to thank all the witnesses who are with us this evening. I think it's obvious that we are dealing with admirable people who are dedicated to the cause of the Afghan people. We are very fortunate to have them with us.

I think we can move this study forward in the right way with their help tonight and eventually use what they tell us to make recommendations in the very important report that this committee will have to draft.

As you know, dear witnesses, this committee must shed light on the government's handling of the Afghan crisis and also focus on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. So those two areas will be addressed.

My first question is for Dr. Cukier and Ms. Perez.

Do you have any reason to be disappointed? If so, what has caused you the greatest disappointment in the government's handling of the Afghan crisis?

We'd like to hear your comments on this because we don't want the same mistakes to be repeated in the future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Ms. Cukier.

[Dr. Wendy Cukier]

I think the context has been very challenging with COVID, with responding to all sorts of unanticipated events. So I would reframe your question to say what would I like to see the government do. I would like to see the government do what it showed it could do when it pulled out the stops to support Syrian refugees in 2015 or, even frankly, what it has done in a matter of weeks for Ukrainian refugees. There are many things that can be done to streamline processes.

I know some of you are very familiar with all of these details, but to Mr. Baker's question, there are Afghan refugees with UNHCR designation who are in Turkey, who are in India, who are in Indonesia, whom we can sponsor tomorrow. The problem is that the people who escaped in August are stuck in limbo.

I have an employee who is Afghan. She came to Canada on a student visa two years ago. She's a Ph.D. student. Her partner is a Hazara refugee who's been in Indonesia. We can sponsor him. Her family is stuck in Pakistan. We can't do anything for them. Her sister was accepted at a Canadian post-secondary institution just like she was, and yet she was denied a student visa because they did not believe she would return to Afghanistan. I'm sorry, but it makes no sense.

My orientation is also very much driven by the needs of Canada's economy because the boomers like me are retiring or dying—I hope to do the first before the second—and our employers large and small are desperate for workers, desperate for highly educated, highly skilled workers, but also for general labour, and there are huge opportunities I think to create pathways for refugees that will make them self-sufficient in a short period of time.

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

Thank you very much.

Could I have a comment from Ms. Perez on the same question?

[Maria Toorpakai Wazir]

Is it okay if I make a comment?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Ms. Wazir, let Ms. Perez go first and then I will go to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

[Maria Toorpakai Wazir]

Sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

He wants you to answer.

[Maria Toorpakai Wazir]

Okay, thanks.

[Kaylee Perez]

Thank you.

Merci, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

I would echo much of what Wendy has shared and reframe it to: what is it that we need?

There has been a slow release of the plan for an “emergency response”. We need clear and ongoing communication to best be able to plan and also to manage the interest that we're seeing and receiving on a regular basis as SAHs. The IRCC department needs to be resourced sufficiently to be able to process the existing inventory, the Afghan response and this Ukrainian response.

I would also echo a lot of what Wendy said about the response to Ukraine and that setting a precedent for how emergency responses can be handled.

There is a strong Afghan diaspora community here. We have well-networked organizations, the SAHs, as well as organizations such as Wendy's one, who are eager to harness public interest, civil society, good funds and time, and we just need clarity on how we can best plan for and do that in a rapid way, recognizing that we also need to look at this surge moment as an opportunity to grow sustainability within our sector and recognizing that the private sponsorship program is a pillar of resettlement here in Canada. We need to ask where there are areas that we can learn from, in the Syrian response and the most recent surge, to grow and build the infrastructure that we need for sustainability. I would argue that a key part of that is supporting sponsorship agreement holders to grow and to be able to respond to this need.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, I'll give 30 seconds of additional time if you want Ms. Wazir to respond.

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

Yes, I completely agree.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Ms. Wazir, you have 30 seconds, please.

[Maria Toorpakai Wazir]

Thank you.

We have refugee crises all over the world. A lot of refugees are coming to Europe, to Canada, to America, all those countries that are accepting them; and now from Ukraine and Syria, all those refugees. Right now, there are refugees for whom we are arranging sports clinics and camps here in Toronto; they are from Afghanistan.

However, again, there are a lot of refugees in Pakistan who are living in miserable conditions. I feel that you cannot bring everybody to Canada or to Europe. We can help them right there. I'm from that region and I have the awareness of these people; I can speak the languages. It's the same thing with other Afghans here who can reach them. I do go and hold awareness campaigns for them, clinics for them. We did sports clinics and tournaments there where the [Technical difficulty--Editor] and I think this is how we build good relations there, too.

We can reach to these people. I want to build a sports centre for them, but alone I cannot do it. I need help from the government and—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Ms. Wazir. It has been over one minute. Thank you kindly.

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

I'd like to thank the witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I will go to Ms. Kwan, for six minutes, please.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for the presentations and your excellent work.

I'll go first to Kaylee, if I may, with the sponsorship agreement holders piece.

Do I understand you correctly that you're asking for the government to not put a limit on the privately sponsored refugees from Afghanistan?

[Kaylee Perez]

Thank you, Ms. Kwan.

My specific comment was in regard to the eligibility criteria currently in place for Afghan refugees. Right now, in order to be able to submit the private sponsorship application of an Afghan, you have to be part of an LGBTQI group, a persecuted religious minority group, a human rights defenders group, a women leaders group or a journalists group. You have to be be affiliated with one of those types of groups.

My comment was in regard to the eligibility criteria being limiting. Why not enable all Afghans to access private sponsorship?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

I absolutely agree that the government needs to expand eligibility and allow Afghans or any group anywhere to be able to make an application, but accessing a sponsorship agreement holder is very difficult. There are a lot of people who cannot access that, so should the government expand and lift the cap, frankly, on privately sponsored refugees? I'm looking for a quick answer, and I want to go to Wendy for the same question.