Canada must ‘fulfill the promise’ and rescue remaining Afghans, veterans say

Thousands of Afghans who worked with Canadian forces during their time in Afghanistan remain stuck under Taliban rule, forcing veterans to ask the government to urgently act.

Veterans are pleading for the government to rescue more Afghans who helped Canada’s military as thousands remain stuck in the Taliban-run country.

To date, Canadian military veterans have been able to extract almost 300 Afghans, but they said more than 10,000 remain in limbo.

The government’s slow pace, and the personal accounts of those left behind in Kabul, have left veterans like retired Canadian Maj.-Gen. David Fraser feeling let down.

“I’m disappointed by the lack of speed in safely getting people out of Afghanistan,” said Fraser, a former commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan.

“We need to know what the plan is to get these people out of the country.”

Global News journalists visited three safe houses in Kabul last week, which have been home to Afghans who aided Canada since August. There, reporters heard from former employees of Canada’s military during its Kandahar operation. The residents described fleeing to the capital in August after they were told the government would resettle them.

But as the Taliban seized the country on Aug. 15, Western nations scrambled to rescue at-risk Afghans and their own citizens ahead of the United States’ complete withdrawal from the region on Aug. 31.

Canada ended its special military operation on Aug. 26, and was able to get 3,700 people out of the country in just under two weeks. But thousands were left behind. The advice for those who remained was to “stay put” while officials explored other options.