“What hypocrisy”: Afghan journalist wants Canada to reunite him with his family – National

Habib Zahori is used to telling other people’s stories. He is an Afghan journalist who lives in Ottawa and has worked for the Washington Post and the New York Times in Afghanistan.

Zahori moved to the United States to study at university in 2014 and cycled across the Canadian border in 2016 to apply for refugee status after his father was kidnapped by the Taliban.

Now he is trying to find his younger brother and sisters who frantically escaped from Kabul International Airport last August when the Taliban took over the country. They live in the Netherlands.

“I am a man who lives two lives,” Zahori said. “I am here physically and mentally, I am with my family. I think of them all the time.”

Canada, like many Western countries, is committed to helping people fleeing Afghanistan out of fear of the Taliban. This includes people who worked with the Canadian military after the US-led invasion in 2001.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to permanently resettle 40,000 Afghans to Canada. By mid-April, some 10,000 people had arrived in Canada.

The slow pace of aid has destabilized many Afghans. On Monday, a group of interpreters working with the Canadian military accused the government of making “false promises”.

They told a special parliamentary committee on Afghanistan that their family members, many of whom are stranded abroad due to heavy paperwork, must be treated with the same level of urgency as Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country. Russian invasion.

“I appreciate what is being done for Ukrainians, (but) we want to be treated the same,” said Safiullah Mohammad Zahed.

Zahed, who worked as an interpreter for the Canadian Armed Forces, told the committee that 12 members of his family are currently hiding in a single room in Afghanistan waiting for their turn to come to Canada. Other interpreters said their families burned documents proving any connection to Canada to avoid detection by the Taliban.

One of the programs the government has created to bring vulnerable Afghans to Canada is specifically for journalists and anyone who has helped Canadian journalists.

To benefit from this special humanitarian program, a person must have already left Afghanistan, must be living in a situation deemed untenable by the government and must be sponsored by a humanitarian group, such as the United Nations Refugee Agency.

All of Zahori’s brothers worked as journalists in Afghanistan or were “fixers” or translators for Western media. But because they escaped from Kabul on a Dutch military flight and now live in Amsterdam, they are not eligible for the special humanitarian program.

This is because they have what the government calls a “durable solution” in the Netherlands, which means Canada views the Netherlands as a safe country that can offer them protection from the Taliban.

Zahori said this policy is unfair and unjust because it does not recognize the family ties his brothers have with Canada.

He wishes the government would do more to reunite him with his family, especially since he is a permanent resident of Canada, is married to a Canadian and has a Canadian son.

“There’s this world of very privileged people who can travel the world without a problem, and then there’s the rest of us,” Zahori said.

Zahori’s struggle to reunite with her family comes as global attention focuses on the refugee crisis in Ukraine.

Canada has agreed to grant temporary residency to an unlimited number of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion. Ukrainians can live, work and study in Canada for up to three years. This program applies to all Ukrainians, regardless of the country in which they currently live.

Canada has also removed many visa requirements for Ukrainians, including biometric security verification for some applicants.

There are also plans to create an accelerated family reunification program that will offer permanent residency to Ukrainians with relatives already living in Canada.

“The Canadian government is opening all doors for Ukrainians (and) they absolutely must have our full support,” Zahori said. “Having said that, I can’t help but think: what hypocrisy.”

Zahori said he has spoken with other Afghans who are trying to bring family members to Canada but have faced similar bureaucratic hurdles.

“It’s like a very, very clear example of bias,” Zahori said.

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Immigration Minister Sean Fraser explained these different approaches, saying that Ukrainians only want to stay in Canada temporarily. He said efforts to reduce administrative burdens on Ukrainians, such as the creation of the new temporary visa program and the elimination of some requirements, aim to facilitate this desire.

“In our conversations with the Ukrainian community, we heard that many people want to come to Canada temporarily, not as refugees, while the situation (in Ukraine) evolves, and then return home,” said the Fraser spokesman Aidan Strickland in a statement. communicated by email.

“People would be considered refugees if there were no other durable solutions. This is currently not the case in Ukraine because people have fled to the “relative stability of safe neighboring countries” where Canadian authorities can process applications. »

But migration experts say that’s what almost all refugees want: to be out of harm’s way and to live in a safe place until they can return home.

“I think the discrimination here comes from the fact that Ukrainians are getting the benefit of the doubt, that they will go home, and not other groups,” said Serena Parekh, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston and an expert in resettlement. refugees around the world.

Nothing prevents Ukrainians from applying for asylum once they arrive in Canada. National and international laws give everyone the same right to seek protection in Canada.

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The government must also consider humanitarian requests made by anyone who wishes to remain in Canada, even after their temporary visa has expired. If an applicant has a job, owns a business, or has a family, the government will weigh these factors before deciding whether to send them back to their home country.

“The reality is that none of us know what’s going to happen in Ukraine,” said Christina Clark-Kazak, migration expert and professor at the University of Ottawa.

Clark-Kazak said Ukrainian-Canadians were able to persuade the government to help their fellow Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion in a way that no other refugee has received before.

And while that’s a good thing, he said, Canada also has a “moral obligation” to help the Afghan people because of the role the Canadian military played in the two-decade conflict. in the country.

“Individual circumstances will determine whether or not people decide to return and when they decide to return,” he said. “Like when they run away.”