In Canada an Immigration Backlog has left our Afghan Allies with Little to no Hope

The fall of Kabul in August 2021, and the onset of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, seized global headlines. However, what many people in Canada did not know at the time was that soon after many Canadian veteran-run charities immediately deployed back to nearby countries, and often to Afghanistan itself, to help evacuate former employees of the Canadian military and government who had been left behind.

I have been volunteering on projects with both US and Canadian charities since 2021 to help evacuate allies from Afghanistan and can say that it is still very much an ongoing situation full of peril for Afghans, and heartbreak for their former friends and colleagues in North America trying to bring them to safety. More recently, a new menace has emerged. Friends on both the Canadian and US side of the issue, as well as Afghans themselves, have told me that they are seeing their efforts to move Afghans to Canada hamstrung by delays from an immigration and refugee system backlogged by applications from those wanting to come to Canada.

First, a little about the “Afghan Evac” as it is so often called. After the fall of Kabul, many US war veterans banded together and formed charities overnight which could render assistance to Afghan refugees. Task Force Pineapple, or Pineapple Express, was the main US group and I became the media lead for Task Force Pineapple’s sister charity Operation North Star. These groups coordinated their operations primarily on Signal, and included both regular staff on US soil and those deploying back to Central Asia.

Canadians were hardly also-rans during this time, and well-known Canadian groups like Aman Lara also deployed as part of this effort. Since its inception, Aman Lara has helped to evacuate 7,196 at-risk individuals from Afghanistan. US-Canada cooperation was so integrated at this point that it was normal, and to a degree still is, to meet Canadians working with US charities or working with charities that are both US and Canadian-run. The priority was getting Afghans to safety in North America or Europe.

During this time the obstacles included a general sense that the US and Canadian governments had abandoned former Afghan allies in Afghanistan without any steps to facilitate a pathway to refugee status and eventually North America. Meanwhile, Afghanistan remains a dangerously unstable and impoverished country under Taliban rule, and the Taliban soon began actively hunting former US and Canadian allies, with many arrested, tortured or killed. I was sent a video by an Afghan construction contractor, who worked for the US military, who claimed the video was of the Taliban placing an active landmine in his family’s living room. It was also normal for US and Canada-based volunteers to break down in tears as individual Afghans they were attempting to bring to North America met tragic ends.

It has almost been four years now since the Taliban takeover and the humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan shows no sign of improving. The Taliban, for example, continues to prevent girls from attending school past Grade 6, the movement and employment of women is highly restricted and anyone who worked for the former government is at risk. Canada does have a special representative for Afghanistan based in Qatar, and significant Canadian foreign aid continues to be sent to Afghanistan via third parties. But the latter provides little comfort for our friends and allies stuck there or waiting to be evacuated in countries like Pakistan. And many of the latter have recently been deported back to Afghanistan by the Pakistani authorities.

The issue now, and as previously mentioned, is a wide-reaching delay in the processing of all immigrants and refugees by our government – part of Trudeau-era backlogs, created by the pandemic, large numbers of Ukrainian refugees coming to Canada and a domestic housing crisis. The result was the government attempting to remedy matters with a strict crack-down on the number of immigrants, refugees and international students allowed into Canada.

US and Canadian veteran-run charities have told me that Afghans are now so held back by existing delays in our refugee process that they will not even start the paperwork for anyone still in Afghanistan, or an intermediary country, because the odds are that the paperwork will time out before it is considered by the Canadian government.

Moreover, an Afghan friend recently told me that there are currently no special programs available for Afghans who are under threat. Indeed, the Canadian government website explains that Canada is “not accepting any more applications for special measures” while also celebrating that “55,195 Afghans have arrived in Canada (under all streams) between August 2021 and November 2024.” According to the Daily Hive, “Canada welcomed 8,900 Afghan refugees in 2024.”

Although it can’t be confirmed officially through government or nonprofit organizations, my Afghan friend estimates that up to 15,000 Afghan refugees are currently awaiting sponsorship so that they can eventually come to Canada.

“Those with family members in Canada previously had a pathway through the Group of Five sponsorship program, but that stream is now also paused,” my Afghan friend added. The only remaining option, he continued, is assistance through a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH). The problem is that many SAHs have long waiting lists and most are not accepting new applications.

The foreign policy ramifications of this situation dragging out could mean Canada will face a problem that the US has – the accusation that it does not keep its promises to its allies and former employees when it was announced in June 2025 that Afghan nationals would be banned from travel to the US.

One policy recommendation for the Canadian government is to develop a new specific and expedited process for Afghan refugees left behind in light of Canada’s continuing debt to its former Afghan partners in a country the West has largely abandoned. Afghan refugees were so desperate to flee during the fall of Kabul that some died clinging to the wheels of departing flights. Now, the desperation stems from wait times for refugees seeking family reunification in Canada averaging more than four years.

At a time when there is widespread disenchantment among newcomers to Canada, this drives home that the world is seeing a sort of innocence lost toward Canada and Canadian foreign policy – that we are unwilling to settle our moral obligations. and placing our reputation as a leader in refugee protection at risk.