Afghan ambassador to Canada makes urgent call for food aid and to ‘expedite’ refugees

Hassan Soroosh, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, said there was an urgent need to "expedite" the exodus, particularly of those at risk of Taliban persecution.

The Afghan ambassador is urging Canada to send officials to Pakistan and other countries bordering Afghanistan to help “accelerate” the passage of refugees fleeing the Taliban.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Hassan Soroosh, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada, said there was an urgent need to “expedite” the exodus, particularly of those at risk of Taliban persecution.

Soroosh praised Canada for leading international efforts to help refugees, and for its humanitarian program set up to give Afghan women leaders, human-rights activists, LGBTQ people and others at risk of persecution a safe haven in Canada.

However, he said he has heard from Afghans who have asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to be referred to the Canadian program who are still waiting for their applications to be processed.

“So far as we understand ? they have not yet started their processing,” he said of the UNHCR.

The humanitarian program, first announced in August, is one of two Canadian refugee streams meant to bring 40,000 Afghans to Canada in total.

The diplomat _ who was speaking in Ottawa, where he has been for two years _ said the international community should put pressure on the Taliban to reopen Afghanistan’s airports to evacuate more people desperate to escape.

“It is very important to increase the frequency of commercial evacuation flights,” he said. Only two major airports are currently open in Afghanistan, including Kabul.