Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
Minister, thank you for showing up, and in person. It's great to see you.
Last night at our Special Committee on Afghanistan, we had two retired major-generals. They testified that they sent a letter to IRCC back in July 2021, asking for a pipeline to get those refugees who were interpreters here. Obviously, they had no response. You had 23 of your own Liberal colleagues write a letter in December 2020, and, again, it fell on deaf ears. The UNHCR testified, at that same committee, that they had a plan to evacuate vulnerable Afghans back in early 2021, and again there was no response.
I've written many letters to your office—to you directly—without getting a response.
Thousands of Afghan interpreters and Afghan nationals are stranded in Afghanistan. What everyone wants to know is, what tangible steps are you or your department taking to bring those refugees here? No one has seen a proper plan yet.