interpreter

Thursday August 18, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 18, 2022

Canada pledged to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees, yet only 17,000 have made it

As anniversaries go, it’s not a happy one.

July 15, 2021

One year ago this week, the Canadian government announced it had suspended operations at its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. And one year ago this week, President Joe Biden confirmed the U.S. would complete its withdrawal from the country.

Two weeks later, the last American soldier left Afghanistan, and the Taliban takeover was complete. Despite assurances from the Taliban that the rights of all Afghans, including women and children, would be protected, citizens have experienced a dramatic decline in their rights, freedoms and quality of life.

According to a report from the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan, human rights violations have escalated rapidly under the Taliban. Journalists, protesters and civil society activists have been arrested, and the report documents 160 extrajudicial killings, 56 cases of torture and 217 instances of cruel and inhumane punishments.

Perhaps the most visible curtailment of human rights involves those who are now, once again, invisible: Women and girls. Under Taliban rule, women and girls “have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away.”

Heather Barr, associate director of the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, recently said on CTV National News: “Women have had all of their rights stripped away from them, and girls as well.”

Thursday July 15, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 15, 2021

‘They want to annihilate us’: Afghan interpreter who helped Canada says life in danger from Taliban

Local interpreters who worked with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan are pleading for Canada’s help in immigrating after the U.S. military’s withdrawal has led to a resurgence of the Taliban.

February 2, 2019

Nearly all U.S. combat forces have left Afghanistan ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s confirmation that the American military operation in the country will officially end August 31, nearly 20 years since the Taliban was removed from power in Kabul.

News of the U.S troops’ departure, and their subsequent overnight abandonment of the Bagram Air Base, has spurred the Taliban to resurge and take back control of significant amounts of territory, capturing Spin Boldak – a strategic border with Pakistan – and one that Canadians fought and died to protect.

“We were there to do the fighting in the initial stages to help stabilize the situation [and] we did that,” Ret. Maj-Gen. David Fraser told CTV News. “We couldn’t stay there forever, as much as people wanted.”

Now as the Taliban nears Kabul, and has overtaken Kandahar’s Panjwai District, Ottawa has confirmed that it will continue sending humanitarian and developmental aid to Afghanistan – but for the interpreters left behind by Canadian, NATO and U.S. forces, time is running out to get them and their families to safety.

May 23, 2012

Many NATO allies like France and Germany have already begun or completed evacuations of the Afghans who have helped in various missions — Biden announced that the U.S. “Operation Allies Refuge” flights out of Afghanistan during the last week of July will be available for special immigrant visa applicants already in the process of applying to U.S. residency.

Canada, however, has not announced a similar endeavour.

At a press conference Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said of Canada’s duty to the interpreters overseas that Ottawa will “continue to work to ensure that we’re providing the right path.”

“I can assure you that our ministers are working on it,” he continued.

But critics say there is not enough federal action on the crisis.

Former Canadian major-generals submitted an open letter to Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino last week, warning that 115 former interpreters, cultural advisors and other locals and their families will face reprisals from the Taliban for helping Canadian troops and diplomats.

They called for the government to expedite the immigration process to bring them and their families to Canada, a sentiment echoed by a letter-writing campaign from Canadian veterans who also want to see the government “do right” by those who helped the troops overseas. (CTV)