Mr. Speaker, the second petition highlights the persecution of the Sikh and Hindu minority in Afghanistan. This is a small, very vulnerable community. Numbers have declined significantly in recent years.
The petitioners call on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to use the powers granted to him to create a special program to help persecuted minorities in Afghanistan be privately sponsored to Canada. They also call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to highlight this issue with his Afghan counterpart.