MEDIA RELEASE: Liberals failing on responsibilities to people in Afghanistan: NDP

OTTAWA– Today marks six months since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan which launched the country into the worst humanitarian crisis in decades. Since Canada pulled out of Afghanistan the situation has become desperate. Children are facing starvation and over 18 million Afghans are in need of emergency aid right now. The NDP’s critic for immigration, Jenny Kwan, and the critic for foreign affairs, Heather McPherson, are calling on the Liberal government to change its insufficient and unnecessarily bureaucratic response and immediately begin helping those people who are suffering.

“This past summer Canadians were horrified by the violence the Taliban used against people in Afghanistan. Six months later and the conditions for people there are certainly not improving,” said Kwan. “The Canadian government has a responsibility to people in Afghanistan and the Liberals must do everything in their power to help as many people as possible.”

The Criminal Code currently prohibits any individual from delivering goods or financial assistance that will benefit a terrorist organization like the Taliban, making it very difficult for humanitarian organizations from Canada to help Afghans trying to feed their families due to their fear of prosecution. Canadian humanitarian organizations have repeatedly asked the Liberal government to provide an exemption, as other countries have, that would allow them to deliver the aid that Afghans desperately need. The Liberal government has failed to respond to this call appropriately, leaving millions of Afghans, including children, on the brink of starvation and vulnerable to an escalating humanitarian crisis.

Liberals failing on responsibilities to people in Afghanistan: NDP

Making matters worse, Canada’s immigration process for refugees fails completely to recognize the situation in which Afghans find themselves—unable to access the resources needed to complete applications or flee to a third country. New Democrats are urging the government to remove the administrative barriers to resettlement that make it nearly impossible for the Afghan people to escape the Taliban. The NDP is further urging the government to remove bureaucratic barriers and waive the Refugee Status Determination requirement, as the government had done during the Syrian refugee crisis.

“In the past six months, only 7,550 Afghan refugees have been settled in Canada out of a promised 40,000. This is unacceptable,” added McPherson. “We urge the Liberal government to work with community and international partners to resettle Afghan refugees and to ensure protection of vulnerable populations like women and girls and minorities such as the Hazaras."

New Democrats call on the Liberal government to immediately address these problems with regard to humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and refugee resettlement. We are calling on the government to assign a special envoy to Afghanistan to address the many obstacles that Afghans are facing and create a concrete plan for delivering aid and resettling refugees.

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