Vancouver (ANTARA) – Canada will consider accepting more Afghan refugees on behalf of the United States or other allies if invited, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said on Friday.
“We have to keep the door open to all possibilities,” Mendicino said in an interview.
“If there are Afghans who have assisted coalition partners on missions and who also meet the criteria for our humanitarian resettlement program, I think we should be prepared to consider such an arrangement,” Mendicino said. .
Canada is part of a coalition of nations trying to evacuate the Afghans who have supported the Western mission in Afghanistan for years, as the Taliban have taken control of the country in days rather than months as planned.
Canada withdrew most of its troops from Afghanistan in 2011, but participated in a NATO mission to train the Afghan army until 2014.
Helping Afghans who have supported the Canadian mission in the past has become a hot political topic ahead of the September 20 election.
The Canadian Armed Forces airlifted 175 vulnerable Afghans and 13 foreign nationals from Kabul on Thursday evening, and evacuations were “scheduled to continue on a regular basis for as long as the security situation permits,” a statement said. .
Canada has evacuated nearly 1,000 vulnerable Afghans to date, the statement said.
Evacuation flights could include refugee families already living in Canada whose transfers have so far been hampered by bureaucracy, Mendicino said.
An independent tribunal assessing asylum claims in Canada has agreed to expedite claims from Afghan refugees, an important step for asylum seekers to be able to reunite with their families, he said.
Separately, Canada pledged last week to resettle 20,000 Afghan refugees who fled the country, and on Friday Mendicino said the government remained “open-minded” about a possible increase in that number.
Source: Reuters
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