OTTAWA - Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says the government predicts it could take two years to fulfil its promise of bringing 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada.
🇨🇦 will continue to support the Afghan people and work to resettle 40,000 vulnerable refugees - work that is well under way.
— Sean Fraser (@SeanFraserMP) December 8, 2021
I was thrilled to see the first cohort of 243 privately sponsored refugees arrive last week and look forward to welcoming another 500 this week! https://t.co/fvVzawxJCe pic.twitter.com/LbwA4vxhnh
The minister said the government is facing challenges in Afghanistan and other countries where refugees have fled but is trying to get them to Canada urgently.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, Fraser said the two-year timeline is an estimate and that hundreds of Afghan refugees are arriving in Canada weekly.
"To the extent that we have the ability to move anybody faster than what's predicted now we're going to do it as quickly as humanly possible," Fraser said.
But he said checks were needed to "protect the integrity of the process of getting people here safely," including security screening.
The NDP criticized the red tape imposed on desperate Afghans, with leader Jagmeet Singh telling a news conference that making Afghans fleeing the Taliban fill out an online form during a time of crisis is not the right response.
Jenny Kwan, the NDP's immigration and refugees critic, says she is not sure that Afghans in hiding from the Taliban — including women and children, human-rights activists, and interpreters who helped the Canadian military — would still be alive in two years.
Kwan said the Canadian government should do all it can to help get vulnerable Afghans to Canada and sort out the paperwork once they are safe.
"We need to cut the red tape. People's lives are at risk right now. People's lives hang in the balance. They may not be standing in two year's time," she said.
She said she had spoken to Afghans whose loved ones are being targeted by the Taliban. Some have been beaten and physically assaulted, but can't find a way out of the country so they can get to Canada.
"They are moving from place to place, in hiding," Kwan said.
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole tabled a motion in the Commons calling for the establishment of a special committee to review events leading up to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
The committee would also look at Canadian efforts to evacuate its citizens stuck in Afghanistan as well as interpreters who helped the Canadian armed forces and other Canadian organizations.
MPs were set to vote on the motion for a committee on Wednesday afternoon. If established, it would have the power to hold hearings.
Kwan said the NDP would back creation of a special committee but wanted to see regular reports on government efforts to get Afghan refugees to Canada.
