CIMM – Afghanistan – May 12, 2022

Key Messages

• Canada’s ultimate goal is to resettle at least 40,000 Afghan nationals by 2024.
• To date, we have welcomed over 12,000 (12,160) Afghan clients, with more flights arriving every week.
• Our commitment includes:
  • 18,000 individuals and their families who had a direct, significant, and enduring relationship with Canada, through their work with the departments of National Defence or Global Affairs. 5,996 have arrived in Canada under this program.
  • A special stream aimed at resettling 5,000 extended family members of interpreters already living in Canada that were not included in the 2009 and 2012 programs.
  • A separate humanitarian stream, to welcome additional Afghan refugees based on their particular vulnerabilities—including women, LGBTQ2 people, human rights defenders, journalists and members of religious and ethnic minorities. 6,162 have arrived in Canada under this program.
• There are millions of Afghan refugees who have fled Afghanistan, and we could reach our 40,000 objective more quickly if we focused exclusively on those Afghans who are already in third countries.
• However, we made a commitment to certain individuals and their families on the basis of their work with Canada.
• We will not turn our backs on them, even if it means doing the harder thing – which is to continue to pursue all avenues to find ways to get them out of Afghanistan and to Canada.
• By using our network of migration offices and implementing flexible approaches where possible, we’ve streamlined applications from Afghanistan to process cases as quickly as we can.
• We’re doing everything we can and innovating new ways to help Afghans inside and outside of Afghanistan. We are working with various partners in the region: state, international organizations, or non-profit organizations, and engaging with other governments to identify a path forward.
• We’re going to continue working to secure safe passage for those in Afghanistan, so they can travel to a safe third country which allows us to complete application processing and facilitate onward travel to Canada.

Supplementary Messages

Persistent Barriers and Creative Solutions to Processing

• It can take several weeks for refugees to get their visas and exit permits, and each country has their own processes, which can impact this timeframe.
• We are navigating client processing in a country in which Canada has no military or diplomatic presence and the current government is a designated terrorist organization under Canadian law.
• These challenges include the lack of biometric collection capacity and the lack of safe secure routes out of the country; the unstable conditions and changing requirements for documents to exit and the regime’s volatile rules for exit coupled with the need for our clients to meet the legal entry requirements for neighbouring countries makes for an extremely challenging and dangerous operating environment.
• Nonetheless, we continue to persevere, to work with [Redacted] to solicit their continued support and assistance through dialogue and by working with like-minded partners. We cannot put clients at risk as we do not control Afghan exit controls nor the entry controls of other sovereign neighbouring nations.
• As an example of creative solutions for processing, IRCC implemented telephone interviews in certain circumstances when the client is in Afghanistan to allow for continued processing of their applications.
• The Department also established a temporary Visa Application Centre (VAC) at a [Redacted], to provide specific administrative support services and biometric collection services to Afghan nationals who supported the [Redacted] in Afghanistan and are destined to Canada.
• In order to help expedite the processing of applications under the Humanitarian program, we are:
  • implementing new digital tools for Privately Sponsored Refugees to help them with form completion and prioritize their processing;
  • working with partners to identify priority cases; and,
  • sending more officers to collect biometrics and conduct interviews in key third countries, including: Albania, Greece, Qatar and Tajikistan.

Departmental Resourcing of Networks for Processing

• IRCC has mobilized its Global network to respond to both the crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine. We continue to have dedicated resources focused on the Afghanistan movement as demonstrated in our constant flow of arrivals. To this end, we have committed additional funding over the next two years to continue our focus on the Afghan initiative.
• Additional resources have been deployed to missions in the Middle East, including Ankara, Abu Dhabi and Islamabad to support processing as well as organizing travel to Canada.
• For locations where positions are pending creation, IRCC has been sending a regular rotation of Temporary Duty officers to support file processing and client movements.
• Additionally, remote processing assistance has been provided from Missions around the globe and from inside Canada.

Supporting Facts and Figures

Current Processing & Landing Inventories (as of April 27, 2022)

• There are currently 14,829 Afghans who have applied under the Special Immigration Measures for individuals with a significant or enduring relationship to Canada in the processing and landing inventory.
• Of 14,829 persons, over ten thousand (10,268) have been processed. Of 10,268 persons, 5,996 are now in Canada and 4,272 are awaiting exit from Afghanistan and/or onward travel to Canada.
• There are currently 6,905 Afghans who have applied under the GAR Humanitarian Programs.
• There are currently 11,352 Afghans who have applied under the PSR Humanitarian Programs.

Current Processing Timelines

• Armed with these new tools and approaches, we are processing applications for Afghan nationals as quickly as possible.
• IRCC cannot provide a precise estimate as to how long it will take to process applications that are currently in Special Immigration Measures, Humanitarian Program or Extended Family inventories.
• The time required to process these applications will depend on a variety of factors, including whether the client is still in Afghanistan.

Background

Additional Measures in place to enhance and/or expedite processing

• The challenges in providing in-person client services in Afghanistan are extraordinary. The Government of Canada has no military or diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, which presents challenges in how we collect and verify applicants’ information in the absence of in-country biometric screening capacity.
• We are also unable to collaborate with our usual international partners who face the same challenges and have limited capacity to complete processing and issue visas for clients in Afghanistan.
• Until such time that full in-country processing is feasible, we have an innovative and robust solution in place, using a multi-stage approach to security screening in Afghanistan, which ensures that the necessary initial client security screening can be completed prior to departure from Afghanistan, and fully completed prior to arrival in Canada.
• In addition, we are actively exploring solutions with like-minded countries and partners to undertake biometric enrollment in Afghanistan, should conditions allow.
• IRCC has put in place a number of facilitative measures for Afghan applicants, including expanding services to refugee clients under the current VAC contract and issuing Temporary Resident Permits to complete processing in-Canada, where medical assessments cannot be completed prior to travel to Canada.
• IRCC is also expediting the processing of applications by increasing communication and coordination resources to monitor progress, communicate updates and develop solutions to address existing and emerging processing challenges for this very complex movement.