P.E.I. woman struggling to get her Afghan family to Canada

A woman from eastern P.E.I. has made the first step in helping her family, who are members of a religious minority in Afghanistan, to safety in Canada, but she knows there are many struggles ahead.

Makis Miri came to Canada from Afghanistan in 1998, arriving on her ninth birthday. She has watched in fear for relatives as the Taliban took control of the country this fall, but she was determined to help them.

"I try to not think about the past so much and look forward to helping my family and be a good support system for them, like my parents were for us to bring us here," Miri told Island Morning host Laura Chapin.

Sectarian violence had already brought tragedy to the family.

In 2019, while attending the wedding of a good friend, Miri's second cousin was killed by a suicide bomber attack.

"There were a lot of deaths and injuries," she said.

"And I mean, you're attending a wedding. You don't think anything like that's going to happen. You're going for a joyous occasion."

It was a shock for Miri, and she said she can only imagine what her cousin's widow has gone through, left behind with three children, aged five to 10 at the time.

"All she wants to do is right now focus on her children and give them a better life and just have a peaceful place where she can raise them," said Miri.

That desire became that much more difficult when the Taliban took over the country. 

As Shia Muslims, Miri's family are targets in an Afghanistan led by the Sunni Taliban. Just last month, a suicide bomber killed 40 at a Shia mosque in Kandahar. The Taliban promised to increase security around Shia mosques.

Her cousin's widow and children and another related family — her uncle and his wife, two daughters, son-in-law, and step mother — began looking for a way out. They travelled to the Tajikistan border, hoping to find a way to cross. They stayed for several weeks, but their position grew increasingly uncomfortable.

"The Taliban presence was really big there, so they started interrogating them and my uncle, who feared for all their lives … he took them back, drove 10 hours and said, 'We're going to just lock ourselves at home and stay there until we can find another solution.'"

They were able to obtain visas to travel to Pakistan in early October, but before they could travel to the land border the Pakistan government closed it down.